The Bridge: Evidence of Racism

 

By Darryl James

The old saying goes: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.”

Racism is the devil and racists are devils.

And racists have placed their program on remote control after convincing many of us that racism no longer exists.  Many of the myths perpetuated about Black people are now being perpetuated by us, and many of the ills plaguing us, are now blamed on us by us.

Some of us who are comfortable and who do not see racism on a regular basis have acquired the habit of denying that racism exists. When one of us talks about racism, another soul, deluded, may sling accusations of “whining.”

We don’t know what God looks like and yet, we believe.  We believe because we know that the flowers grow from the rain, we know that the rain comes from the clouds and babies smile for no reason apparent to us.  We know that there is something bigger than us and we can find evidence of things unseen.

Racism is also easy to trace, because we can feel its effects.  There may not be a gang of crazy racists chasing you down or preventing you from using the lunch counter, but racism is still alive and well–just wearing some new clothing.

Sometimes, the clothing is Black skin.

Those of us who are still thinking beings can look around and cite evidence of racism where the dead of brain refuse to see.

For example, if we take a look at the dropping of drugs and automatic weaponry in the Black community, which began at the same time that jobs began to dry up, we can see racism.  Why not?  There were no drugs and guns dropped in Beverly Hills, California or in Skokie, Illinois, or in any other affluent neighborhood with very few Blacks.

We can see evidence of racism when we view AIDS in the global Black community.

How did this disease come of nowhere and metamorphose from a gay white male disease to a Black disease, disproportionately affecting Africa and female African Americans?  If it were truly a Black disease, we would have been dying from it before the 1980’s.

The evaporation of after school programs is evidence of racism.

If we take a close look at the after school programs that began to evaporate in the early 90’s under Bill Clinton’s watch, while Affirmative Action, scholarship programs and other educational financial aid programs for poor Blacks were under attack, we see racism because the direct result is fewer Black men in college.

And that leads us into the building of more prisons and less gang prevention over the past twenty plus years, because the direct result is more Black men and women in prison.

The current state of Black leadership is evidence of racism.

Black leaders have been chosen for us over the past three decades.  Generally, they are harmless Negroes who bark loud, but are toothless.  The real leaders, found in thinking Black men and women who CHOOSE to become teachers to make a difference in our children, or single parents who place their children first are seldom recognized, but the NAACP can give an “Image” award to many of today’s modern House Niggers in entertainment

Referring to the election of Barack Obama as the initiation of some fake “post-racial society” is racism, because he is one man and the incidents of racism have increased since his election.

The diminishing of the historical significance of slavery is racism.

Even the Armenians have an annual commemoration of past horrors visited upon their culture.  At every turn, we are urged to remember the oppression of other cultures—remember the Holocaust, remember the Armenians, etc.  We even remember the Alamo, but we are always urged to forget about slavery.

The effectiveness of Black self-blame stems from racism.

We have some serious problems and while we are perpetuating much of it, the real shame comes in refusing to understand the root of many difficulties for African descendants in America, who never had it very good, but now claim that we are to blame for everything that is currently affecting us.

We can still see racism today, and sadly, we can even see it amongst our own people.  It’s the American way to disparage and dislike Black people.

Racism is institutionalized and far too many of us are good Americans.