Black Men In America

Darryl James

The Bridge: When Them That’s Got Are Black

By Darryl James

Last week, I drew a picture of the fall of America’s so-called “Liberal Democracy,” which includes riots, specifically between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” In this nation, when any “haves” are African American, we know historically that white “have-nots” will start to lose their minds.

American racism and elitism rear their ugly heads when Blacks appear to be ahead of whites on any level—lower class, middle class and upper class. Within the upper and so-called middle class, institutionalized racism comes into play to keep the playing field level for whites. That racism includes the glass ceiling, preferential hiring and replacement of Blacks with less qualified whites.

On the lower level, racism appears as violence when impoverished whites blame Blacks for taking “their” jobs. At the opening of the twentieth century, whites committed acts of violence against Blacks who were better off, blaming them for societal problems and viewing them as needing to be “put in their place.” One of the bloodiest, and perhaps most significant race riots of this nation’s history was the Tulsa, Race Riot of 1921 in Oklahoma. Its importance stems not from its resultant death toll, but from its shroud of mystery. Shortly after the bloody massacre, history closed its mouth and attempted to erase memory of the ugly event.

The Tulsa Race Riot was also significant because it represented white backlash against Blacks who were attempting to enjoy the promises of capitalism and democracy with their own communities and their own commerce. In Tulsa, the Black area called the “Greenwood District” was nationally recognized as an area of high entrepreneurial activity, dubbed the “Black Wall Street of America.”

Blacks came from all over the nation, hearing of the economic opportunities available on The Black Wall Street, where the concept of recycling Black dollars was thriving in the face of segregation which, unlike integration, gave Blacks no other option but to conduct commerce amongst themselves. The community grew and flourished economically. Whites in the remainder of Tulsa were not only jealous, but also afraid of what Black prosperity meant for their own growth potential. In the same fashion as the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and many other race riots, the Tulsa Race Riot erupted based on the assumption of Black sexual assault against a white woman named Sarah Page.

The white woman in question was actually having a consensual affair with a Black man, named Dick Rowland. A hotly debated incident in a local elevator lead the white citizens to believe that the white woman, who was also married, had been attacked by Rowland.

Rowland was arrested and the white mob that came to the jail looking for their own brand of justice, commonly referred to as lynching, was met by an armed group of Blacks, preparing to defend Rowland. One of the white men tried to disarm one of the Black men and the gun discharged, setting off mass confusion and an all-out race war, complete with burning and looting.

While the Blacks were outnumbered, the majority were former soldiers and began to battle military style. Unfortunately, they and the Tulsa police were overwhelmed by the swelling mob of hatred, which chased even the firefighters away. Before the National Guard arrived, the Greenwood District was burned to its foundation.

Official estimates placed the death count at ten whites and twenty-six Blacks. However, later reports told of more than three hundred dead, with property damage in the millions. Even though the entire area was leveled, eventually, the residents returned to their community and rebuilt it from the ground up.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, survivors of the horrible event began to speak, and in 1997, The Tulsa Race Riot Commission was formed to investigate the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

Two years after the Black Wall Street was burned to the ground, the prospering Black community in Rosewood, Florida was also burned to the ground, based on friction between the races (and the white effort to “protect” the chastity of white womanhood from the sexual advances of the Black man), as well as white hatred of any Black advancement.

Similar in origin to Tulsa, Rosewood’s rioting was begun by murderous whites assuming that a white woman had been sexually assaulted by a Black man. Rosewood was a small community with a majority of Black citizens who owned their homes and their land. It was named for the red cedar that grew nearby. That cedar was cut and shipped to New York to become pencils, which made the community prosperous. When the cedar ran out, so did the majority of the white citizens. Of the mostly Black population that remained, the men went to work at a sawmill in a nearby town and the women mostly did domestic work. Some Blacks even worked for Goins & Brothers, a Black-owned naval store in Rosewood, whose owners also owned or leased most of the land in a section called “Goin’s Quarters.”

The town also had a general store owned by a Black family, a Black-operated sugar mill, and a private school of their own. Rosewood even had its own train station. The difficulties between the races that led to a major race war in Rosewood, Florida had been brewing for at least three years.

In the summer of 1920, other incidents included the lynching of four Black men who were removed from jail after being arrested for the alleged rape of a white woman. In November of that same year, two whites and five Blacks were killed following a dispute over voting rights. Ococee, a Black community, was destroyed, including twenty-five homes, two churches and a Masonic lodge.

In 1921 and 1922, several Black men were lynched or burned at the stake for alleged assault or murder of white women. In January of 1923, a white woman reported an attack by a Black man she couldn’t identify. The sheriff apparently decided he could make the identification and apprehended one Black man, while a posse of white vigilantes apprehended and killed another.

Descendants of Blacks in Rosewood recall that the man who assaulted the white woman was actually her white lover. They also say that the woman, who was married and having an adulterous affair, protected her reputation by creating the Black assailant. The next day more than two hundred whites gathered and converged on Rosewood, murdering two Black men. Many of the Black citizens escaped Rosewood to Gainesville by train.

Two days later, the white mob returned to Rosewood and burned every building in sight. All tolled, eight people lost their lives—six Black and two white. A grand jury was convened to investigate the riot, but claimed to find “insufficient evidence,” and did not prosecute anyone.

In the cases of both The Black Wall Street and Rosewood, Blacks were attacked by whites who felt they were faring better. Blacks fought back even though they were outnumbered and overwhelmed. American history likes to ignore these stories mainly because they were prosperous Black neighborhoods, thriving in the era of Jim Crow.

We should remember this lesson in history just in case it becomes our future when America’s so-called “Liberal Democracy disintegrates.

Darryl James won the Chicago Book Festival Non-Fiction Award for “The LA Riots, 3 Decades of Revolution,” his book on Rioting in America. James is also the author of the forthcoming powerful anthology “Notes From The Edge.” Discounted Autographed and Numbered Pre-Release copies can be ordered at www.darryljames.com. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

A Two-Part Series on Hate

Part I: Black Men Hate Black Women

Now that I have your attention, you have to know that the title is far from the truth.

At least it is for any sane person, but not for a growing number of Black women who are now using the R. Kelly acquittal to bolster their claim that Black men hate Black women.

Before I deal with that, let me tell you a story.

It was the mid-nineties and I was hanging out with Jermaine Dupri at the Santa Monica airport in California, where R & B group Jagged Edge was filming one of their videos.

It was Summertime and the honeys were out in big numbers–legs, breasts and butt cleavage on display for all to see.

These honeys were in line to be chosen for participation in the Jagged Edge video and what happened next stayed with me for a while.

Jermaine pointed to the line and said: “DJ, watch this, man.”

I watched as the young Black women in the line foisted breasts, hiked up skirts and exposed as much flesh as possible the closer they got to the front of the line.

I asked Jermaine if this was usual and he shook his head and replied: “It’s like this all the time.”

Over the years, I learned that such is the behavior of the so-called “Video Hoes,” who are painted by some as strong independent women and by others as victims of sexism.

While I always have problems with such labels as “Video Hoes,” I have an even bigger problem with blaming their behavior on sexism. Particularly knowing that their avocation is an unpaid one.

I have yet an even bigger problem when Black women pretend that the existence of “Video Hoes” is only at the behest of the Black men who make the music. It leaves so many people out of the loop.

It leaves out parents, educators, the media and of course, the women themselves who participate in the degradation of their own image and standing in society.

It also ignores the dichotomy of public opinion regarding music videos, music and sexism, which frankly draws a line down the middle of Black womanhood. Some Black women celebrate the sexual imagery in entertainment, while others decry it and blame it solely on Black men.

But, if Black women can not reach a consensus about crucial issues including sexism and misogyny, then how can anyone expect a consensus from Black men, particularly if they are only watching?

I guess I could have put the cape on and flew to the rescue of those poor “victims” at the Jagged Edge video, but anyone with half a brain knows that none of those women would have come with me to safety. In fact, I would have been laughed at and cursed out and possibly even assaulted.

So why do some Black women continue to blame Black men for any and everything that happens to any of them?

And why do some Black women claim that because Black women are subject to sexist views and sexist behavior it is only because Black men are failing to protect them or because Black men actually hate Black women?

Simple: Because it is the path of least resistance since anyone can say anything about Black men and very few will come to their defense.

I mean, really, we must ask ourselves: Has it been open season on Black women, or on Black people?

Now, back to R. Kelly.

I tried to stay out of the discussion about whether he was the man in the video and whether the young girl was a victim and whether he should be jailed, because, for me, the man deserved a trial before being convicted and punished.

Some people compare it to the OJ Simpson case and claim that African Americans don’t care if a Black person is guilty or not-they just want to see them go free.

That’s asinine.

And it’s also a damned lie.

African Americans are not so unsophisticated that they just want any famous Black person to go free simply because they are famous. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Black people who cheered for OJ did so because the “evidence” was not evidence at all. They cheered for his acquittal because whites with the same level of evidence had been acquitted. In fact, most Black people don’t really care about OJ, because they know he’s an idiot.

It’s just that we understand the justice system and if “they” can get off, so should we.

For example, there was and still is no moral outrage over filmmaker Roman Polanski, who admitted to raping an underage girl and then fled the country to evade prosecution. There are no extradition efforts and no outrage from women who want his art boycotted and/or to use him as an icon for the sexual abuse of women. Further, he was given a standing ovation at the Academy Awards a few years ago.

The people who cheered for R. Kelly understood that no matter how much people became emotionally involved, he could not be convicted simply because people wanted him to be convicted.

The tape was not evidence enough, as demonstrated in many cases involving police brutality caught on tape.

And the witnesses, including the alleged victim who swore she was not the person on the tape and the woman who stole from Kelly and admitted to extortion were not enough.

For all the crowing about Black men not protecting Black women, this case shows clearly that apparently many Black women aren’t willing to protect themselves, as evidenced by the cheering of Black women over Kelly’s acquittal.

Sad.

What is also sad and very confusing is that in light of Black women’s failure to stand up for Black women, groups of Black women are still willing to give too much focus to chiding Black men about standing up for Black women.

WhatAboutOurDaughters.com, a site run by Black women, admitted that during the R. Kelly trial, it was Black women and not Black men who acted the most disturbing in their defense of R. Kelly.

Yet, the site has posted and is promoting a petition targeting Black men and their need to stand up for Black women by battling the exploitation of their daughters, sisters and wives.

Something is wrong with that. Where is the petition for Black women to stand up, or the petition for Black women to stop participating in their own exploitation?

It’s not that I am opposed to the protection of Black women. I just think it is a mistake to lay the burden of protection solely at the feet of Black men.

I also think it is a grave mistake to link the defense of Black women and girls to the allegedly unjust acquittal of one man. Leave R. Kelly alone, because there is nothing there.

We would do better to launch unified defense campaigns of Black women and girls, simply because it is the right thing to do. We should do so because we love and cherish Black women and girls and they should be defended.

It’s said that some people think we need an icon.

Why not go after all the media outlets that facilitate the soft porn of Black women?

Why not go after-and I know this won’t be popular-the very Black women who participate in and facilitate the destruction of Black women and girls?

And while we’re at it, why not go after the Black women who participate in and facilitate the destruction of Black men and boys?

Really-who’s hating whom?

Part II: Black Women Hate Black Men by Darryl James

I think that it is sad indeed that R Kelly’s case is being compared to the Mike Tyson rape conviction. In that case, I still maintain that Tyson was also a victim, not just the woman who allowed him to perform oral sex on her while menstruating and then emerged from a locked bathroom with a phone to continue engaging with her “attacker.”

Muddied and confusing.

Do I think R Kelly is guilty?

The answer is: “Does it matter?”

I ask if it matters because out of all the positions that people hold, few want to take the position I hold, which is that if Kelly is to be held accountable, then other people, including the women who enabled him must be held accountable as well.

How about Sparkle, the young girl’s aunt, who allegedly served her up in order to get Kelly’s support for her own music career?

How about the girl’s parents who failed miserably as parents and had no idea what a freak their little girl had become? Why was a thirteen-year-old girl alone with a grown man? Why was she having sex like a Porn Star? Is all of that Kelly’s fault?

How about a society that allows and even encourages young girls to dress and act like adult hookers and then flashes righteous indignation when grown men look and interact with those young girls inappropriately?

There are plenty of young girls with super tight clothing pushing and pressing sexual flesh into the public eye and there is no moral outrage over it. In fact, when I wrote about it in this column, some ignorant asshead Feminatzis accused me of hating women and being a sexist for my own moral outrage.

Go figure.

You see, there are a lot of people who enable the abuse of Black women, including some Black women. It’s counterintuitive and counterproductive to lay the blame squarely at the feet of Black men or to ever claim that Black men fail to protect Black women and yet expect Black men to lead in the protection of anyone, when many members of that group fail to protect themselves.

It’s like Black people supporting the Wayans family, Martin Lawrence, Flavor Flav or many of the Buffoonish Black Coons of Comedy and rap sellouts who make Black people look bad on the world stage and then expecting white people to protect our image.

If you want respect, you must first respect yourself.

And, it’s difficult for Black women to make demands of Black men, when far too many Black women are far too willing to toss Black men under the bus for personal gain or for nothing at all.

This includes the proliferation of the Down Low myth, propagated by Black women more than anyone; the myth of more Black men being in prison than college and the ever-popular claim of Black men’s undying love and lust for white women. All popular myths that fall from the lips of Black women more than any other group of people in this nation.

The ignorant bag of crap J. L. King has recently released a DVD designed to educate people on how to recognize a Down Low Black man. Instead of challenging this asshole to do some real research or shut up, many Black women are passing his promotions around as though he is speaking from the Bible.

So, before we get to shaming Black men into standing up for Black women more than Black women are apparently willing to stand up for themselves, we must address the question of why too many Black women fail to stand up for their brothers, sons and husbands.

Really, we must ask ourselves: who’s hating whom?

Do Black women hate Black men?

We know that during the primary election, many Black women decided that it was in their best interests to support Senator Hillary Clinton because she was a woman, as opposed to supporting Senator Barack Obama because he was Black. So, if in fact the choice was made to assert womanhood over Blackness, doesn’t that also mean that the choice was made to assert their interests as women over the interests of their husbands, sons and brothers?

Take the case in point in California. Congresswoman Maxine Waters and LA County Supervisor Yvonne Burke both represent constituencies that were overwhelmingly pro-Obama, yet both decided to go sharply against their constituency and support Clinton.

Were they hating on Obama?

But, really, let’s go back to the R. Kelly case and examine some of the messages that came from it.

What we heard from many of the Black women who were outraged over Kelly’s acquittal is that Black men fail to protect Black women and girls, particularly from the oversexualization of modern entertainment.

But what we did not hear was that the same oversexualization of modern entertainment adversely affects Black men and boys. It’s as though having young Black boys growing up watching themselves marginalized as hungry sexual animals doesn’t do damage to their psyche or sense of self-worth.

Or it’s as though no one cares, because the focus has been on saving and/or protecting Black girls.

If Black women can challenge Black men to protect Black women and girls, then why is it wrong to challenge Black women to protect Black men and boys?

Why do people want to view the young girl in the R Kelly sex tape who was overly comfortable getting freaky with a grown man as a victim, but not the grown man who is sick enough to be sexually drawn to young girls?

Wasn’t R Kelly once a child? And if he is damaged, wasn’t he damaged as a young Black boy? Even if no one cares about him, what about other Black males like him?

I already know the answer. Damn the male, save the female.

Really, we should be concerned about both males and females.

But, sadly, we see far too much focus on the uplift of Black women and girls, as opposed to Black people.

For example, organizations such as Black Girls Rock exist to raise the self-esteem of Black girls, where we used to be concerned about the condition of all Black children. Why wasn’t the organization named Black Children Rock? And why is their propaganda only aimed at getting people to view Black girls in a different light?

Ashley Dunn, a board member of that organization draws a clear line in the sand.

“The type of education Black women and Black men have had about the importance of Black women has been pretty much non-existent, and what they have seen hasn’t been positive,” said Dunn. “With that in mind, why would anyone get upset about a Black girl being abused and urinated on? She was nothing anyway, and that is how both women and men feel in our community.”

Really? Are Black girls being abused and devalued or are Black children-male and female-being abused and devalued?

Where is the education about the importance of Black men? Isn’t much of what we see negative?

In nearly every corner, young Black boys are being devalued. They are told that they are destined to be gang members, drug dealers, prisoners above college students, harbingers of AIDS, lovers of white women and haters of Black women.

And, in efforts to protect Black women and girls, Black men and boys are typically thrown under the bus as the perpetrators of all things bad and absent from all things good in the Black community.

What the hell does that do to the psyche and self-esteem of Black boys?

Where is the outrage? Particularly since some of that anti-Black male propaganda comes from Black women?

If Black men and boys are doing so horribly in society, why then are there no Herculean efforts to save them?

And why are there so many Black women telling us how horrible we are?

We hear far too many stories of single Black mothers telling their Black male children that their destiny is to become the same kind of garbage as their father who abandoned them.

Talk to Black men who were educated in public schools and you will hear plentiful stories of how they were devalued by Black female educators.

I have one of my own.

Even though I had good grades, I was a discipline problem after the death of my stepfather, grandmother and brother all during my sophomore year in high school. I managed to pull things together by my senior year (thanks to some strong Black men who stepped in), yet the Black female college career counselor at my school tried to discourage me from going to college. She told me that I was not college material, that I would never amount to anything and that I should instead join the military.

Delivering such messages is abusive and devaluing.

The problem is that if we only focus on one side and not both, we end up tacitly diminishing the one side not given focus.

The question that must be asked is whether Black women actually hate Black men.

Or we must at least ask whether they are concerned about the plight of their brothers, sons and husbands.

Darryl James is an award-winning author of the forthcoming powerful anthology “Notes From The Edge.” Discounted Autographed and Numbered Pre-Release copies can be ordered at www.darryljames.com. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and this year, will release his first full-length documentary. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

The Bridge: Hillary’s Racism & Misandry Won’t Be Missed

Now that Barack Obama is the Democratic Presidential Nominee and all the dust is starting to settle in the Democratic Party, people will be taking some deep breaths and refocusing the race.

Some people will miss the daily blow-by-blow between Hillary Clinton and Obama. Some will miss the hopefulness of Hillary’s charge to be the first female president. And, still others will miss the shock value of the extent to which Hillary was willing to go to win.

However, there are a few things that I won’t miss about the primary campaign.

I won’t miss the accusations of “hatred of all women” lodged against people who simply do not like Hillary. The accusers charged the nation with hating women vicariously through Hillary Clinton’s failure to reach the White House. It is sad and silly to take the dislike of Clinton and give it universal application.

But that has been a staple of Clinton’s campaign, which is why young, hopeful women of all colors and men who think independently rejected her.

Typically, many people dislike Hillary because she is note very likeable, not because they hate women. The “hate women” rhetoric is wrong, ignorant and silly.

I won’t miss the irrational support for a woman because she is a woman, even though she is unable to beat John McCain. And I won’t miss the backward logic of Clintonites, who are fine with such irrational support for a woman, but opposed to the same irrational support for a Black candidate.

I won’t miss the whining of women who believe that Clinton was denied the White House because women are hated. They are blind not to recognize the throngs of women who support Obama, unless they believe those women also hate women.

I won’t miss Hillary playing the gender card, even shedding crocodile tears over her alleged mistreatment. I wonder where those tears were when her husband’s cheating was played out on the world stage.

I won’t miss Clinton playing the “white woman in distress card,” with those same tears and hints of being attacked by a Black man.

Personally, I resent Clinton because her camp played the race card in addition to the gender card. I won’t miss the racist remarks from her camp, including the ones from their resident slave Bob Johnson, who dances quite well to prove to Ol’ Massah that he “ain’t lak dem udder darkies.”

They should have realized that Barack Obama is not Jesse Jackson, the clown pimp of poverty who fancied himself the eternal “Go-to” man for all things Black. Obama couldn’t be dismissed as a token candidate because he is just as qualified as Clinton. And, contrary to political rhetoric, Obama, as the Black son of a single white mother, represents more Americans than does the rich, white, privileged Hillary Clinton.

Clinging to a campaign that had been dying for months, I wonder if Hillary would have gone to such great, futile lengths to hold on if she were being trounced by a white man.

I won’t miss the duplicity of Hillary and her feminist supporters who wanted to simultaneously claim that women are hated, yet, also claim her time as the First Lady as “experience” in order to trump Obama.

I won’t miss the throngs of over the hill, angry women who were vesting hope in Hillary for all the failed hopes and dreams of their lives. The nation can not pay for dreams that were deferred and consequently, died, because some of those dreams could only come true to the detriment of men.

I’m not talking about dreams of equality for women in society, I’m talking about dreams of marriage and happiness for women who chose careers over relationships and personal goals over motherhood. Personal choices that found many of them over 40 and alone, blaming men for “an inability to commit,” or “being intimidated by strong women,” when, really these women failed to commit when they were young and began to confuse intimidation with disinterest.

The decrease in marriage is not representative of any hatred of women, but of a far more complicated cocktail of societal shifts as well as the growing fear of negative results in divorce for men.

If America hated women so much, the court system would not be so heavily tilted towards mothers in child support and custody cases, or towards wives in divorce/alimony and palimony cases.

Certainly now that Clinton has finished tarnishing the Democratic party as well as the Democratic process, many of her blind supporters may come to realize the destruction done in the name of electing the first woman president.

The only thing that would have been different in a Hillary Clinton White House is the raising of a feminist flag, which wouldn’t be a bad thing if she were really about the empowerment of all women.

Frankly, I don’t think Hillary cares about women of color, or even white women, just women of Hillary, which may or may not include Chelsea. I don’t think she cares about some woman who works at Wal-Mart in Iowa being called a bitch.

Which brings me to this point: Calling someone a bitch is not the same as calling someone a Nigger, as has been asserted by some women who attempted to paint Hillary as “oppressed.”

Personally, I am repulsed by the inane comparisons of alleged sexism to real life racism.

Sorry, feminists, but there is an historical attachment of savage violence, inhumane treatment and enslavement to racism that makes sexism in this nation pale by comparison. America has mistreated no other group as horribly, and no group should make comparisons, unless they are Black women who were mistreated mostly because of being Black.

I won’t miss the misandry demonstrated by women who supported Hillary simply because she is a woman, based on what her election portended for women, not for all Americans.

In many of their words and actions, they are actually demonstrating hatred of men.

Using their own logic, we must assume that they hate men if they assert their potential achievements as women over any potential achievements of their husbands, their sons, their brothers or their fathers.

And, when it comes to my own people, I have long since called it a grave mistake for Black women to begin asserting their status as women above their status as Black people as though sexism could somehow be separated from racism and classism.

For that position, I have been repeatedly rewarded with accusations of hating Black women, which is never accompanied by any sound reasoning or proof from the ignorant and vile feminists who make the accusations.

And how could I hate Black women when my mother raised me with love? When I have two sisters who also loved me? When I have never done anything to hold a woman back or harm a woman?

My defense is starkly divergent from the racist who claims to have Black friends. I can repel charges of sexism because I came from a Black woman, and was raised in an environment without gender issues.

I can repel those charges because I was also raised with a working brain, functioning emotions and critical thinking.

With my critical thinking and world view, I realize that Hillary Clinton and her supporters are the real haters. They hate men and many men hate them right back.

There is no doubt that some of the men who hate Hillary may also hate women. But the two groups are not mutually inclusive.

I don’t hate Hillary because she’s a woman.

I dislike her because she has revealed herself to be disingenuous, less than a good person and less than scrupulous. I dislike her because she is a radical feminist, a covert racist and frankly, not a solid presidential candidate.

I won’t miss her when she’s gone.

Darryl James is an award-winning author of the forthcoming powerful anthology “Notes From The Edge.” Discounted Autographed and Numbered Pre-Release copies can be ordered at www.darryljames.com. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and this year, will release his first full-length documentary. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

There are people in every corner of society who are willing to sell their very souls for personal gain, for wealth and fame, or for nothing at all.

Amongst African Americans, we often see soul-selling in exchange for acceptance by the dominant group.

And, since these are typically Negroes who hate themselves, they go so much farther than white racists that their extremity is nearly insane.

They look silly and peculiar to many of us, because they allow the real racists to seem innocuous unless they are overt and extreme themselves.

That’s why we see racists today delivering covert racism and then pretending that they didn’t know or understand that their comments or actions were racist.

Simultaneously, we see Negroes taking the baton and going to the next level.

Take Bob Johnson of BET infamy, for example.

Not only did he create an entertainment venue which continues to provide demeaning images long after he sold it, but in his support of Hillary Clinton, Johnson attacked Barack Obama in a way that whites only danced around.

It’s one thing to support a white candidate. Not every Black person has to stand behind every Black candidate. However, Johnson’s attack on Obama was a glaring example of self-hatred and selling out.

Johnson went to the extreme with his soul-selling.

But such high-tech soul-selling can only occur in an environment where our very identity is in question.

We are at such a loss of cultural identity, that nearly anything can be celebrated as beautiful, even if it really isn’t.

This includes things that harm us.

We see this with rap music and comedy that pokes fun at us in an ignorant and image-damaging manner, yet, many of us not only support it, but vehemently defend it.

For proof, say anything against Tyler Perry and watch throngs of souled out Negroes come to his defense, even though the antics of his show House of Payne are indefensible to any Black person with self-pride.

It’s not about Black supremacy, but what was once good about us and got us through the trials and tribulations of the past.

We have to be careful or we may not survive what is in store for us in the future.

It’s no secret that whites are still willing to toss us under the bus when it comes to achieving their own desired goals.

We see Hillary praising her Republican rival over her Democratic Party rival, not just to win, but to keep ahead of the Black candidate at all costs.

She’s selling us out, even as some confused Negroes still pledge allegiance to Big Bill Clinton, thinking that he was ever a friend.

In every group in the nation, there are people who are far too willing to sell themselves or to sell their group or another group out for personal gain.

It seems that we’ve diminished the usage of words such as “Sellout,” but since the behavior is still in vogue, why not bring back the label?

For example, conservative commentator and national bootlicker, Armstrong Williams took nearly a quarter of a million dollars in government funds to promote the sick and sorry program from a sick and sorry president, No Child Left Behind. When it came to the Black community, it was known as “Your Child Left Behind,” but Williams got paid to bring it to us.

Sellout.

When defending himself, Williams wrote: “Sellout is just a term that people use to enslave us and keep us distracted from real problems.”

No Armstrong, Sellout is a term that people use for lackeys who sell out their own people for cash, glory and/or political favors. You went for all three.

I think that in many ways, we’ve stopped calling people on the carpet when they are out of line, which has lead to weakness and a lack of accountability.

I don’t have a problem with the Republican Party and Conservatives simply out of some blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. I have a problem with the Republican Party for the same reasons I have problems with the Democratic Party–they are both tools for rich white men to remain rich white men.

Both parties are also problematic because they present alarmist views, which are presented as being diametrically opposed.

Just as I view Williams and other extremist Conservatives as Sellouts, I also view Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as Sellouts.

The reality is that many Blacks have become polarized when it comes to politics and political parties, frequently missing out on intrinsic issues in order to toe the party line.

As opposed to blind party loyalty, we should be more focused on inducing politicians to improve the lot of our poorest and worst off. Such a program would benefit all of us.

When the worst of us rises, the best of us shines greater.

However, what both sides of the party line end up doing is pandering to the broadest pool of the people from those who are already aware, and therefore, ahead of the game. The poor are typically manipulated with emotional rhetoric as opposed to informative reports.

Although I was raised in a family of Democrats, one of my favorite presidents was Richard Nixon. His program of converting Welfare families into working citizens through Workfare made the most sense for pulling up the people at the bottom.

And, while the truth about Bill Clinton should have turned us away from the Democrats, the truth about the retarded man currently in office should turn us away from pure politics and toward goals based on improvement of the worst of us, which will improve the best of us.

For a working program that buoyed an entire population, take a look at Hispanic Americans, specifically the Mexican Americans who protested by the millions for the worst of them, so that the best of them could shine brighter.

They knew their plan would work, because they studied our history and it once worked for us.

Yes, Black people, when we protested so that the worst of us could improve, the best of us also improved.

But once the best of us began to improve, we abandoned the worst of us and began to point the finger at them to place blame for all of the race’s problems at their feet.

And we do this from both sides of the political line.

Today, we have become so self-centered and so eager to blame the powerless, that we barely pay attention to the worst of us. Many of us only pay lip service to community service, yet are quick to talk about how they only have to “go to college and get a job,” which is just some tired and stupid propaganda.

So, who’s selling us out?

Too many of us.

Bill Cosby, America’s shameful drunken uncle is leading a Sellout movement by blaming impoverished Blacks without really trying to improve their lot. He’s selling us out for glory, because his ignorant rants appear to make him relevant again.

Negro Conservatives are selling out by excelling on the backs of poor people’s movements of the past while blaming poor people of the present for not getting ahead and assailing programs designed to improve their lot.

Democrats are selling out by taking Blacks for granted, while using them as pawns against the Republican Party.

The fake middle class is selling us out by pretending that more of us are doing better because they are doing better and don’t want to look at the reality.

Take a close look at the actions of these groups. They are polarizing both sides of the lines in order for their own gains. It’s clear that they are selling out their followers for glory, for cash and/or for political favors.

At some point, they will have to pay with their very own souls.

Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and this year, will release his first full-length documentary. James appears in the film “What Black Men Think,” an in-depth view of misrepresentations, myths and stereotypes about Black men. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

The Bridge featuring Darryl James

Peggy, you poor deluded, self-hating wretch. I read your letter to Janks Morton and recognized it as the same message from Black women who hate Black men the nation over. It’s filled with misplaced blame, hatred and lies.

How ironic that you begin by claiming to love Black men and then proceed to deride Black men in true man-hating form. You claim to love us but then present unfounded lies about our love for white women, our prison proclivities, homosexuality and the abandonment of our women and children.

But you are also contradicting yourself by claiming to love us and then proceeding to claim that the film is filled with denial. In essence, you are saying that all of the myths about Black men are true.

You claim to be ruled by Light, but your missive is an embrace of dark lies.

You present a list of hate-filled LIES and not one scintilla of “evidence” to support them. You refer to “facts” and present none.

I don’t know you, so I don’t know how much “education” you have or claim to have, but in my high school years, I learned that research means finding more than one source to prove out or disprove a theory. Your only source is your own tortured mind.

I also learned that ignominious idiots use conjecture and lies to justify their propaganda.

I’m glad that you brought up slavery, because moronic Feminatzis such as yourself are the worst of the mental slaves remaining. Your kind is the worst of any vestiges of House Niggerism remaining in our community.

Before you reel from being given your deserving label of House Nigger, recall one of the symptoms as outlined by our beloved Malcom X: When the slave master says he is sick, the House Nigger asks: “We sick, boss?”

This is what you are doing. Where racist whites once claimed that Black men lusted after white women, were lazy and shiftless and all the other things racists used to proclaim, those proclamations have been taken up by filthy Black female demons such as yourself.

In addition to mental slavery to anachronistic racist stereotypes, you and filthy demons like you are also slaves to Feminist propaganda, which, I’m sure you don’t understand, isn’t even working for or embraced by most white women anymore. Ask Hilary Clinton, who is getting her ass kicked by young white women who know what she represents and fear it as much as white men fear it.

Radical Feminism has gone too far, moving from women’s rights to the destruction of families and men by creating and promulgating sexist propaganda designed to demonize men and drive a wedge between the genders and families-intact and potential.

The difficulties between the sexes across all racial lines are complex, but have less to do with who is guilty and more to do with what people are willing to believe, changes in how we socialize, the influence of the media and who is willing to accept responsibility.

But silly stupid little girls like you want to boil it down to blaming Black men for the ills of the entire society, which means that while you crow about being strong and independent, you are still pretending to be the weak victims of men you believe to be beneath you.

Contradictory, ignorant and evil.

How dare you pretend that Black men fail to protect Black women and children?

Instead of seeking whole and healthy relationships with Black men, greasy chicken-lipped slaves such as yourself force them out of your lives with lies, selfish demands and incessant berating and then claim to be a poor victim of abandonment.

And when you have driven every possible good thing about Black men from your lives, you bitch and moan about being abandoned.

You claim that Black women are loyal to Black men and that the reverse does not exist, yet if you survey white women, they will tell you that the most hateful things about Black men now come from Black women who crow from every mountainside about the sorry and sad Black man.

On television shows, in books and magazines and in any small or large discussion, too many Black women are open and LOUD about their disdain for Black men, no matter who is listening.

Currently, there is a trend for some Black women to seek refuge in white men.

Who is disloyal?

Let us return to the research you hateful demons refuse to do.

First and foremost, the Civil Rights Movement gave women-white AND Black-their greatest boost since they were given the vote in a Constitutional amendment. The Voting Rights Act gave support specifically to women and Affirmative Action benefitted women-white AND Black–far more than Black men.

It was more than just the right to sit at a lunch counter, it was about the right to stand up and be men-in order to protect Black women and children, which is why we saw signs that read: “I am a man!”

As for our great love for white women, Black women are the only group who still claim that we love white women so much. Even white women are confused when they hear that lie!

According to the US Census, 95% of all Black men who are married are married to BLACK WOMEN!! 95%, you liar!

As for college attendance, your numbers are so very WRONG.

According to the National Education Center, college enrollment is 55% female, but that is without respect to race. In other words, there are more white women in college than white men. It is NOT a Black phenomenon.

According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, in 2001, there were 1,095,000 Black women in college and 604,000 Black men, which is just under two to one, not ten to one, liar. And, Black women outnumber Black men by two million in the first place.

We see the numbers of disparity get higher on Black college campuses (nowhere near your claim), which you demons love to point to, but that is indicative of nothing more than Black colleges’ inability to recruit Black students, which is witnessed by the active recruiting of Hispanics by these colleges who are seeing their enrollment plummet.

Black women cheered for that liar Bill Cosby when he spoke at Spelman and told young Black women that Black men weren’t graduating. Meanwhile, across the street at Morehouse that same year, the largest graduating class of Black men was walking across that stage.

And, let’s deal with Black Feminist lies about Black men and their children.

First, we are not talking about teen mothers who are being abandoned. The largest group of women having children out of wedlock is women 18-24. In fact, according to the Census data, there are more women over thirty having children out of wedlock than women under eighteen.

According to Census data, nearly 40% of the women who have children out of wedlock are living with a man. Nearly half of those pregnancies are INTENTIONAL.

Dealing with child support, Welfare and single mothers, most of the women who are on child support and/or Welfare have multiple children, which means that they had a chance to stop the cycle, but CHOSE not to. There can be no Deadbeat Dads without women who willingly have unprotected sex with them-Deadbeat Moms.

However, if you perform the most cursory research, you will find that most Black men assigned child support pay–69 % of all men actually pay child support.

You will also find that a huge portion of the women assigned child support DO NOT PAY. 43% of all women fail to pay child support.

You will also find that over 70% of the men assigned child support earn less than $10,000 per year. Only 4% of the men in arrears make above $40,000 per year.

These FACTS are important because they fly in the face of the Feminatzi construct, which paints men, particularly Black men as Deadbeat Dads.

These FACTS force spiteful man-haters to realize that a great portion of single motherhood is created by the single mothers.

Perform even the smallest of studies, such as one by The Los Angeles Times and you will find that many of the men who earn so little are actually present in the lives of their children and that they contribute goods such as clothing, groceries, cribs, diapers and TIME to their children.

What we do know is that single mothers applying for Welfare benefits are denied or given severely reduced benefits unless they name a father. Any father.

According to that same LA Times study, a huge portion of the men who are assigned child support are not the actual fathers. Many of them were never even served and knew nothing of the child or the case until their licenses were suspended or wages garnished.

Yet, Feminist demons such as yourself would rather rage against Black men instead of a system which created dependence on the government, poor child rearing and ultimately human (Black males) fodder for the legal system and the privatized prison system.

If you cared for the women and children (some of whom grow up to become Black men), you would be concerned about the Black men who are being forced out of their lives by the Welfare system and by the single mothers themselves who have children without being financially prepared-which, yes, makes them DEADBEAT MOTHERS!

Stop hating the men who have protected the Black community from everything outside, but who have understandably not been able to fully protect the community from its latest, greatest threat-internal attacks and destruction, which now come from the hands of Black women more often than at the hands of some invisible white racist.

Like most hateful Black women who hate Black men, there is no blame for Black women in any of your missives. They are blameless, while you lay all of the blame at the feet of Black men.

You lied about Black men not looking Black women’s way, when my own surveys reveal the opposite: Black women, in many cases, won’t even return a greeting of a Black man. In many cities, Black women don’t even greet EACH OTHER!!

You refuse to deal with the Black women who seek out thugs, who exchange sex for money, drugs, trinkets and trash, who, as single mothers, do everything possible to force men (including fathers, grandfathers and uncles) from the lives of Black children, based on their disdain for the fathers they CHOSE.

Many Black men will readily point to and chastise the sorry Black men who do abandon their families, but hateful blaming Black women like you refuse to acknowledge the Black women who contribute to single motherhood.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, otherwise, we would have to pretend that Black women are being raped by Black men whenever they find themselves pregnant. But we know they are willingly having sex and some of them are having sex with men they shouldn’t even be having conversations with.

There is responsibility on both sides.

We have many sicknesses in our community on both sides. But the latest and greatest sickness is among Black women who believe that only Black men are destroying our community.

I would deal with your other myths directly, but they are so ignorant that I can’t even respect them. Additionally, I know you don’t want the truth, you simply want to blame someone else for your responsibility and delivering facts and data will not stop your spreading of hatred and lies.

Any person who has taken Psychology 101 recognizes your pathology. You have been rejected, misused and/or abused by the men you CHOSE to allow in your life. Instead of taking any of the blame, you instead choose to indict all Black men for crimes you believe were committed against you. Internally, you find foundation for their rejection and so begin to hate yourself. Your self-hatred is then projected to the world and foisted upon the shoulders of Black men, who are now standing up and refusing to become the benevolent thug/whipping boy many women search for.

We just won’t put the cape on for women like you anymore, because to fly to your rescue means to destroy ourselves and young Black men.

You revealed your pathology with your words: “When I see a black man who looks like he can afford to do the giving, instead of the taking, he’s with someone who doesn’t look like me, and I’m pretty darn cute.”

That isn’t research or evidence. That is simply stark insight into your demented, narcissistic mind. You believe that everything is about you and you take it personally. And, then, you try to make it universal as though the crimes you perceive are committed by all men against all women, when really, its all in your twisted mind.

You have destroyed your hope, squandered your potential for happiness and want someone else to accept blame. You have done this as an individual and desire to make it a community event.

But you can not, because while you are loud and abrasive, your number is thankfully small.

My happiness comes from the certain knowledge that you do not represent all Black women. In fact, while your kind is loud, I hold the belief that most Black women still have faith in Black men.

And, I harbor hope that Black men and Black women will be able to embrace truth and work together to move beyond this place of wrath and tears and avoid the looming horror of the shade that awaits us if too many think and act as you do.

No one is coming to save your kind, Peggy. Frankly, you don’t deserve to be saved. You refuse to save yourself or the Black children you claim to love and not even Superman (the white man you love so much) will fly to your rescue.

To be honest, so-called women such as yourself are so irreparably damaged and destructive that the greatest contribution you could make to the race is to kill yourself or at the very least willingly spay yourself and sequester yourself from Black humanity.

That is the only way you will stop spreading your hatred and lies about Black men whom you claim to love.

I’m certain you will take this as “evidence” of the Black man’s hatred for Black women, but this is all about ignorant, self-hating so-called Black women such as yourself.

Please take it personally.

Darryl James

A Black man who has loved.

The Bridge: Just Be A Woman About It

By Darryl James

Last week, I wrote a piece called “Man Up!” Of course, it was well-received, because it took men to task. But the balance of it all is also discussing what women need to do to make things better.

Sadly, some people just don’t want to do anything but talk about the problems men have. I’m certain that this piece will not be met with the warm and fuzzy welcome that the Man Up piece was met with.

It’s just not as popular to discuss the issues women have. It’s nearly a Cardinal sin.

But, you already know that Darryl James isn’t concerned with what is popular, only what is pragmatic.

So, let’s deal with a few things that Black women need to deal with.

Sisters, start checking other Black women more often when they are out of control. When men try to let sisters know what the problems are, we get accused of hating women or “blaming the victim.” But we all know that there is bad behavior on both sides-we need to stop pretending that only Black men have problems.

For example, sisters need to resolve the confusion and conflict between today’s so-called Liberated “Independent” Women and women who still want men to pay for everything. You can’t be a modern woman, but hold on to the things from the old school that solely benefit you.

If you are truly independent, have your own means and don’t need a man, why not pay your own way? Why view men in financial terms with financial expectations–especially if you don’t want to be defined in sexual terms with sexual expectations? Both views are old school-bring one and the other comes right along.

And, speaking of being viewed in sexual terms, never try to get men to focus on your mind when your tits and ass are packaged specifically to make us ignore everything and look at your tits and ass. Men are visual and even if you aren’t dressed like a hooker, be a grownup and realize that there are plenty of women who are dressed like hookers and plenty of men who like to look, including men who really are interested in your mind.

Realize that you can not change a man, even though a good woman can influence a good man. If you see things you don’t like at the start, realize that they will probably be there at the end when you get hurt.

And speaking of pain, stop pretending that only women get hurt. Men get hurt, too and it’s ugly when anyone carries that stuff into the next relationship. Get some therapy, which does not mean talking to your girlfriends about how horrible men are.

Let’s talk about sex, baby.

Ladies, don’t ever get mad at a man who is unfaithful if you have decided to be unfaithful as well. We know that what is good for the goose can be good for the gander, so stop pretending that only men cheat.

Don’t ever place yourself in a position where date rape can occur. If you don’t know the man very well, you don’t need to be in private places with him, particularly if you have had too much to drink (or too much to smoke). Of course no means no, but that slogan means little if you have been harmed.

It is not enough to say that a man must “wrap it up.” You must demand that he wrap it up or just decide not to have sex. If you get a disease or get pregnant, you can not act like all women are victims of all men when you opened your body and allowed him inside of you.

And if you have sex and get pregnant, do not think that having a child will make you a wife. If he wasn’t shopping for rings before you got pregnant, chances are he still won’t.

No matter what anyone says, do not imagine that making a man a father will make him responsible. If you have a baby with a man who you already know is unemployed and/or irresponsible, you are a Deadbeat Mom, because you knew your child would be without a good father–especially if he already has other children that he doesn’t take care of.

And, since we know that there are more single mothers raising children than single fathers, be a real woman and take some of the responsibility for the boys who are grown men, but are still boys. Be honest, because we know that many single mothers over the past thirty years have been coddling their boys and turning them into lazy grown boys (The “Baby Boy” Syndrome) with a sense of entitlement. It’s not just the absentee father’s fault.

If you are a single mother, you must take responsibility for making certain that your child has an example of a strong Black man in his life. If you don’t have a man, look to the men in your family. You can also look to mentoring programs, or go to the Black church or Black fraternities. Contrary to the popular slogan, you can not do it all by yourself and you don’t have to.

This is for the grown girls who never became ladies: Don’t get mad at a man who beats the snot out of your nose if you a) searched for a man with “a little thug” in him and/or b) placed your hands on him first. We know a man shouldn’t hit a woman, but don’t EVER forget that a woman shouldn’t hit a man either. Let’s just keep our hands off of each other.

And, even though it seems popular and cool for some females to be “thugged out,” a woman should never talk like a man or act like a man and still expect to be treated like a lady. Ladies don’t date thugs or act like thugs.

But if you are thugged out, tattooed to the gills or in other ways just not that fly, stop complaining about the men who don’t want you when you may be the women that men don’t want. Any man who reads a woman’s magazine always gets a laugh reading lies about what men supposedly want. Try this-ask a man what he wants and if it ain’t you, just be a woman about it and move on.

Are you a mother to your children, meaning that you are making certain that there is a male presence in their lives? Are you a good example of a positive Black woman or do you even care? Do you trash Black men whenever you get a chance? Do you work with young Black women or do you pretend that only Black men have issues?

Don’t talk about how bad Black men are unless you have taken some action to improve things. If there is no strong Black man in your life, seek one out, even if only to make friends with and keep hope alive.

Finally, stop talking to each other about what a “real man” should do and be, because most of what you talk to each other about is straight from Fairytale Land. But especially stop dogging Black men out to each other and to white women, some of whom now think that all of you hate all of us and that all of us want all of them.

If you want to know what a “real man” should be or do, how about asking real men?

Just be a woman about it and focus on what a good woman should be, epsecially when you are with the girls.

Here’s the key-both men AND women have problems and if we only focus on one side or the other, there will be no progress. Get it?

In the words of Method Man from the Wu-Tang Clan, “If you keep it real with me, I’ll keep it real with you.”

And if the things I wrote here make you mad, just be a woman about it and either make the necessary changes or realize that I wasn’t talking about you. Pass it on to women you know fit the bill.

That’s what real women do.

Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and in Spring of this year, will release his first full-length documentary. James’ latest book, “Bridging The Black Gender Gap,” is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

Images of Blacks In Film

If you really want to know what scares America, don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s the Black man with a gun–this nation put them there. The scariest Black man or woman is the one with knowledge and a plan.

But the most dangerous Black man or woman–to other Black people–is the man or woman who has the power to assassinate the African American image.

Unfortunately, some of the most vicious assaults on the Black image have come from our own community.

In the movie Hollywood Shuffle, film maker Robert Townsend attempted to deal with Blacks who play demeaning roles in films just to get paid. Townsend’s character admonished the “sellouts” with the tagline: “There is always work at the post office.”

That statement is very true indeed. The defending line for every demeaning role in the history of film, from Hattie McDaniels all the way to the new “Blaxploitation” era of today is that for many Black actors, these are the only roles available. Yet, no one is forced to take a demeaning role in film or to work for wages not to scale and in fact, there have been Blacks participating in the independent side of film for a very long time.

The difference between African Americans and nearly every other ethnic group in America is that we have done a poor job of controlling our own image. We can take control of our own image by taking control of the image that is bought and sold in modern film.

It is weak to claim that demeaning roles are all that is available, and it is particularly weak when the option of making our own films has been available for a long time.

For all the ranting and raving I do about Black-owned businesses and how integration hurt us in many ways, I always get confused looks and questions from the people who have no idea that we were making things happen in a real way when we had real Black communities with real Black commerce.

One such shining example was a Black man from Metropolis, Illinois named Oscar Micheaux, who in 1919, made his own full-length feature film from his novel called “The Homesteader.” He was the first African-American to do so, and served as inspiration for Townsend, as well as Spike Lee, Tim Reid and Carl Franklin, among other filmmakers.

The son of former slaves, Micheaux worked in Chicago as a shoe shine boy while pursuing his dream of being a writer, moving to South Dakota, where he penned several novels, formed his own publishing company and sold copies of his books door to door.

Please read carefully, because while this story is nearly obscure, it should serve as inspiration for every Black person in America today with a dream.

During Micheaux’s era, most of the films made were silent, and for the most part, Blacks were silent as well as invisible, save for the buck-dancing, shuffling, demeaning images of self-effacing actors such as Hattie McDaniel and Lincoln Perry, also known as Stepin’ Fetchit.

Our very relationship with film was initiated with the early “classic,” Birth Of A Nation. The “talkies” ushered in the era of Blacks as weak buffoons and idiots or manly mammies when most of the actors were dark-skinned Negroes who continuously bucked their eyes for outlandish comedic and demeaning effect.

Actor Ving Rhames, Keenan Ivory Wayans and other confused Negroes have been outspoken about calling Stepin’ Fetchit a hero, claiming that the shuffling, foolish actor from the early days of film opened doors for today’s Black actors. What doors were opened by an embarrassment who claimed his fame by bucking his eyes out of his head in childlike fear, by poking his bottom lip out, by stooping his head, or by speaking in a slow, dull-witted cartoonish voice, designed to provide comedy relief to racists?

There were real doors opened for Blacks, but they came in the form of high quality films with Blacks as protagonists in respectable roles, written by a Black man named Oscar Micheaux.

Micheaux understood the film game and as an entrepreneur, knew that he would have to start his own film company in order to get his stories to the silver screen. He did just that and launched a successful film business with more than forty-three movies to his credit.

Micheaux’s film business was just that–a business. He hired all of the actors, made the movies and even handled his own distribution to the seven hundred-plus Black theatres in existence in the nation at that time. Do I have to repeat that there were more than seven hundred Black theatres in existence before integration?

Currently, Earvin “Magic” Johnson is a revolutionary for attempting to rebuild what once was, taking theatres into parts of Black America which haven’t held first-run theatres in decades. His revolution is to build the future by revisiting the past.

In the late Eighties, Spike Lee set off a new Black Renaissance in film by regenerating interest in Black-themed films with Black actors that weren’t pandering to America’s beloved Negro stereotypes.

There are a number of actors and actresses who are doing very good work on television and in film, holding the line and refusing to denigrate our image for a paycheck and fifteen minutes of fame.

Today, generations after Oscar Micheaux’s revolution in film making, it makes no sense for anyone to say that they are taking a demeaning role because there is nothing else, or that they have to avoid their dream because it is simply unavailable. Micheaux was not a rich man, but he was able to accomplish his dreams by relying on resources found within his own community.

In order to generate funding for his films, Micheaux began shopping the concept of an all-Black film to the Black theatres and asking for payment in advance, which he would use to make the film.

Micheaux wanted to make Black films with positive roles for Black actors. Think about that the next time you are in front of the television when the new House Niggers make everyone laugh on television or when the latest film featuring Blacks over-exaggerating their own behavior for a punch line rolls through Hollywood for a belly laugh at us.

If we were controlling our own images, we would not have to worry about what anyone thinks about us. We would be the heroes as well as the villains, the lovers as well as the thieves and defining those roles ourselves. Further, the good roles wouldn’t be relegated to a handful of shining Black princes and princesses who refuse to clown their race for a punch line and a paycheck.

If we wish to move beyond our present, we have only to revisit our past. Let’s make Black history a part of the Black future.

Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and in Spring of this year, will release his first full-length documentary. James’ latest book, “Bridging The Black Gender Gap,” is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

The Bridge: American Politics, Part 1

By Darryl James

In America, right now, history is being made and we are all witnesses.

For the first time, a serious Black presidential candidate is on deck and even if American Politricks (election stealing, vote miscounting, undercounting or over counting) come into play, nothing and no one can take away the fact that Senator Barack Obama is running a serious campaign and is being taken seriously.

This is not another Negro clown on parade in the form of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, neither of whom had any real chance or intent of winning. And, neither had any political experience. At all.

The sad part is that while racist white men may come out in droves to oppose the election of a Black president, the most outrageous opposition comes from a bunch of dead-brained, self-hating House Niggers who have the nerve to question Obama’s blackness.

Really-what is that about?

Sadly, what is at the root of the mislead Negroes is an inability to believe that anyone who looks like them could possibly be elected to the highest position in the nation. That inability to believe comes from being beaten into submission by America’s legacy of racism and some Negroes’ inherent weakness.

Such inherent weakness prompted some handkerchief head Negroes to call for Blacks to support Hillary Clinton to avoid playing racial politics, even though their call is actually pure racial politics. Frankly, I would rather see people support Obama because he is Black and embraces it, rather than support another candidate to avoid “racial politics.”

Some of those same weak Negroes crowed about Obama’s lack of experience, but as the voters in Iowa showed, a desire for change outweighs any measure of experience and Obama clearly represents a divergence from the status quo.

Obama took 38 per cent of the voters in Iowa, trailed by John Edwards with 30 per cent and Clinton with 29 per cent.

“The numbers tell us this was a debate between change and experience, and change won,” said CNN political analyst Bill Schneider.

Yes! Finally! A change may be coming to America.

In addition to the change that Senator Obama so clearly represents in so many ways, there is a lot riding on the next presidential election, which means that voter registration must be higher than the lackluster numbers of recent elections. However, many of the people who claim to seek an increase in voter registration would do well to avoid the issuance of vapid propaganda in efforts to win people over.

Sadly, though, this is what politics has largely come to.

People speak in heartfelt tones about their candidates of choice, but one thing they fail to do, which is all too common, is to discuss real issues that would cajole someone into supporting a candidate.

This is why so many Americans fail to vote. People get so caught up in emotions, hype and BS that they don’t deal with concrete issues.

For example, I hear people claim that Senator Clinton would probably be endorsed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They claim that he would have been pleased at her relationship with her husband, the so-called “Black President.”

But I believe that Dr. King would be disgusted by the presidency of Bill Clinton, which ushered in a sharp decline in Black male college enrollment, and a sharp incline in Black male imprisonment. And, if that wasn’t enough, Clinton’s presidency came hand in hand with the privatization of prisons and a heightened ante in the war on drugs, which was really a war on urban America. Clinton also came hand in hand with a decrease in after school programs and the like. Clinton as a Black President? Hell No!

In addition, Hillary’s pro-feminist stance (which is boring young white women, scaring old white men, but will certainly do more harm to Black men) is no longer obfuscated, chasing some vacillating Democrats to the Republican team, while Obama’s fresh ideas and fresh face also has the effect of making him more palatable to former opponents, including white women who would have been Clinton supporters.

With Barack Obama’s triumph in the Iowa precinct caucuses, the change that he represents must first come with increased voter registration.

While too many people think it is enough to repeat the myriad voting slogans designed to motivate the masses, I believe that real discussion on the voting process, the right to vote and the effectiveness of voting has to occur.

I’ll get right into that next week.

The Bridge: American Politics, Part 2

By Darryl James

Last week, in American Politics, Part 1, I stated that while too many people think it is enough to repeat the myriad voting slogans designed to motivate the masses, I believe that real discussion on the voting process, the right to vote and the effectiveness of voting has to occur.

For example, those who speak of “one man, one vote,” refuse to explain the Electoral College and how it can mitigate the popular vote. But in a climate of hanging, swinging and missing chads, anything could happen.

The Electoral College was designed as a buffer between the people and the actual selection of the president, because the racist, sexist and classist founding fathers did not trust the average citizen. It was also designed to give smaller states more power.

In all but two states, the winner of the most votes from the people takes all of the Electoral votes for that state. However, in Maine and Nebraska, Electoral votes go to the winner in each of those states’ congressional districts, saving two for the statewide winner. Confusing, huh?

Until we provide more clarity on the voting process as well as the candidates, we will continue to provide little inspiration for the masses to vote.

Our ancestors died so that we would have the right to vote, but after the horrible events in Florida in 2000, many people just may exercise the right to not vote. Unless, of course, they hear more than the usual slogans and platitudes. We have to remember that since the Big ‘80’s, the American people have been more concerned with big cars than social programs, and more concerned with gas prices than educating our children.

Please don’t believe this is a Black thing, because whites have problems turning out the voters as well.

And the party line demagogues don’t make things any better.

On the Democratic side, every Black Democrat assumes that all Blacks should join this party, failing to discuss difficulties that we should have with the party. For example, does anyone want to talk about how the Democrats have a habit of taking Blacks for granted, knowing that our vote can almost always be counted on? And if the first serious Black contender is derided by other Blacks for not being “Black” enough, why would the party take us seriously?

On the Republican side, the Black conservatives espousing “American” values, fail to take the party to task for its elitist, classist and racist “values.” I agree that we need not be so loyal to one party, but if the racism in the Republican party can not be dampened and the Blacks who join the party are mostly boot licking lackeys, then there is very little to inspire more of us to join. The racist conservatives who populate the Republican Party are all about big business and rich, white men.

In addition, there can be no pure alignment based on skin color in any party.

Aside from the clowning, self-serving antics of the Soul Curl Brothers (Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson), Blacks should have had difficulties with the likes of Mayor Wilson Goode in Philadelphia (who burned poor folks out of public housing) and Mayor Tom Bradley (who allowed LA Police Chief Darryl Gates to run rampant) who were both Black.

The bottom line is that politics can be confusing and intimidating.

So, what then, can help to turn out the vote? To begin with, inspiring candidates, such as Barack Obama, who has inspired both Blacks and whites across the nation with his victory in Iowa and concession speech in New Hampshire’s close race. Secondly, a real voter education program, to explain the entire voting process as well as the impact of voting would do wonders for boosting voter registration.

The truth about both parties may also help.

For example, it would be nice if Republicans admitted that Georgie is moderately mentally retarded and a warmonger. They would garner more respect if they admitted that the most conservative of the party care very little about people of color, or people without money.

Even though Georgie is “Bushwhacking” the world, it would also be nice if the truth about the Democratic Party were still told.

Am I a “bad” Black man for challenging the Democratic Party? Well, I challenge both and the Republicans are no better. I agree with the notion that we need not be so loyal to one party, but the racism in the Republican Party must be addressed.

I’m about sick to my stomach of hearing how Bill Clinton was the “first Black president. Yet, even if Republicans lie about how dangerous the idiot in the White House is, they can not lie about his view of the world, particularly when it comes to people of color.

The problem is that during elections, voting is made into an emotional issue, which works temporarily, but fails to sustain after major disappointments. For far too many, the goal is to get people to vote for a specific candidate, or a specific issue, as opposed to providing real information so that the people can make informed decisions. If the goal were to make more people more politically astute, the voter turnout would grow and could be sustained.

Let us remember how the retarded son of a Bush first got into office: A great number of voters of color in Florida were disenfranchised and many of their elected officials failed to stand up for them. Eventually, Democrat Al Gore gave up the fight. Both parties failed the people. Many Blacks and other American citizens on the fringe of enfranchisement watched and became grossly disillusioned about the voting process.

I don’t know about the apathy of poor whites, but I do believe that more Blacks of all income brackets would get out and vote, and continue to vote if they had more compelling information aside from party lines and the historical importance of voting.

Otherwise, the voting process remains a joke to many.

I’m reminded of the Election Day slogan of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley from my hometown of Chicago, IL: “Vote early and vote often.” He wasn’t really joking.

There are real reasons to vote, but if you are working for either party and trying to get the masses out to vote, don’t just send the same old tired messages. Explain the actual voting process. Tell the people about the real issues and the real messages that should be sent with each vote.

The beauty of the vote is that a group of people, comprised of many groups of people, can unite to send a message.

Now, that’s a reason to vote.

Darryl James is an award-winning author who is now a filmmaker. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and in spring of this year, will release his first full-length documentary. James’ latest book, “Bridging The Black Gender Gap,” is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at djames@theblackgendergap.com.