ABOUT LENSES AND TRUTH

My favorite TV shows include C-Span, Charlie Rose, and Real Time with Bill Mahr.  Last night, following the President's (Obama) State of the Union address, Charlie hosted a round-table to discuss President Obama's performance and the capabilities and weaknesses of the Republican opposition.
As usual, with Charlie and Bill, when the topic is President Obama, the round-table devolves to opinions of whites, by whites (last night, for instance).   Both have difficulty showing genuine respect for the person of someone who is not white, as do many of the guests they select.  To some extent, both are also detectably less than respectful of females, regardless of race.  Respectful, that is, of their person.  They show respect for their skills, but not their person.  Why could this be?  I'm sure those outside our nation who have access to global media "get" this, but we don't!

The answer lies in the devilish psychology of race and the denial of race in this country, which is alive and well in the 21st century.  I'm sure billions of pages have been written on some aspect of this topic over the past several centuries, but they seem powerless against the forces of  media.  Reaction to the first black President of the United States by members of the media show this facet of racism in stark detail.  There is also awesome fatigue around the subject of race, which adds to the success of the media and their ways.  It sustains the business model for Fox.

Imagine, there is an artist who paints pictures of truth; and he uses a basket of lenses of varying degrees of accuracy to achieve clear pictures.  There is one lens in the basket labeled "race" that he or she dare not use for fear that their brain will never again function as it has before.  There all types of lenses that are "about race" that they can safely use, however.  This could explain why only a type of non-white like Condoleezza Rice or Clarence Thomas, most notably, are safely favored by white media for inclusion in any type of discussion that includes the function of race in this nation's affairs.  Their personal pathologies on the subject of race have been publicly and historically demonstrated by their behavior.

Back to the President, the State of the Nation, and the 2012 election.  In the speech, and in the debates of the most prominent Republican challengers, race (and class) lurks without fail.  In the case of Romney, we see religious and financial prejudices; in the case of Romney's challenger, Gengrich, we see the rawest of racism harking back to that of the overseers on the plantation who are jealous because their job is to protect the Master and his wealth; but is thrown peanuts for their efforts.  Gengrich's threat to the Republican Party and to the nation is that he taps into that core of white rage that is deep in this country.  Blue collar white males got "stiffed" by Bush and Cheney.  Or, if you prefer, by Cheney and Bush -- and the Republicans (and some Democrats) in Congress.

Establishment Republicans are scrambling for ways to "stop Newt" for sake of the survival of rich whites in this country.  The Romney's may again have to flee to Mexico.  My grandfather taught me about race in this country in the mid-1950's.  He had been in business for almost 50 years in a border state, and in a racial environment comparable in some ways to Apartheid in South Africa.  His take was that racism was markedly different in the South than in the North.

In the South, non-whites (and Jews) could get rich, so long as they kept their social distance.  In the North (and West), social distance was of less concern; trumped (excuse the pun) by white economic
jealousy.  In the 2012 election, both of these approaches to race are in play and the white media is either incapable or unwilling to discuss it.

One genius of Ronald Reagan was to capitalize on Nixon's opening to southern whites, by extending middle class status to "Archie Bunker" whites in the rest of the country (getting them to turn on their Unions).  In 2012, Newt sees the betrayal of that deal.  Rich whites are now treating "middle class" whites the same as they treat non-whites.

This is the dynamite stick that Newt carries.  Failure to use the "race lens" by our media prevents the country from becoming aware of the danger they face from the right.  This might also explain why other qualified white challengers, who the media claims to possess greater capabilities than any now running, ALL DECLINE to run.

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, and to recall again the prognostications of De Tocqville, "pray for your country" if you think God is Just!

Copyright © 2012: Williams LLC
All Rights Reserved: Williams LLC

The Black Conservative in U.S. Politics

     I woke up this morning to a gathering of Black Conservatives on C-Span.  What a treat to watch.
You can tell when the Republican Party is in a tough fight, it seeks out their black representatives and herds them before the media.  I've seen this movie before over the past several decades.  There they were; the usual suspects; ministers (used by white male presidents for more than a hundred years to appease blacks), current and ex-elected officials, and Star Parker(sic).
     My overall sense after watching for an hour was one of sadness and deep frustration.  It was like watching a trapped animal fight its way out of a snare.  An animal that could see only a limited part of its snare; therefore, not able to make any progress - - in spite of great energy and a desire to achieve freedom.
     Coming on the heels of Newt Gengrich's rout of the Republican field in the South Carolina Primary, the gathering, though not their intent, glaringly illuminated the current status of the Republican Party as the Klan Party.  Yet, they struggled mightily to convince themselves and others watching that black voters should vote for the Republican Party.
    As for Conservatives, the South Carolina whites in the Republican Party want to "take back" their power and conserve white supremacy.  So for, blacks in this country have yet to achieve again the community wealth they had gained before integration.  They certainly have no wealth, or values, left to "conserve".  Remember, you are what you do; not what you preach (Newt)!
    They, rightly,  agreed that black voters in the U.S. live conservative lives, but vote with Progressives.
     They wrongly stated that the Republicans failed in their public relations message to blacks and needed to correct that error.  They failed to realize that those blacks who vote for Progressives or Liberals are smart enough to  know their enemies when they see them.  Black conservatives are roundly confused on tht score.
     The preachers in the group were humming that same old, tired message that blacks were lulled to a stupor by "welfare".  At the same time, they strum the tune that blacks should follow the white Jesus.
They remind me of  the old story about the twelve blind men and the elephant.  Although, the elephant this group was pushing stinks to high heaven!  Their noses should save them, though their eyes failed them.  Some of them must have smelled something, because they stressed the need to identify themselves as "Frederick Douglass Republicans".
     Moses warned the Israelites against following false gods and worshipping idols.  In the 21st Century, black Americans have to wake up to the false choices they have made through time.
In the 19th Century they were given the choice between Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington as leaders.  The right choice would have been to follow both of them.  In the 20th Century they were given the choice between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.  The right choice would have to follow both of them.  As to false gods and idols, any fool should know that Jesus did not come from Europe.  The Roman Christians of the 5th Century have to be regarded as the most talented of hucksters and the most dangerous of demagogues on matters of skin color.  Their impact has stood through 500 years and infected every Christian religious reformation or reincarnation since, including the Book of Mormon.
     As stated in an earlier blog of mine, the government has always been the source of degradation for blacks in the United States, assisted over time by the Church and the Klan .  Any politician in the 21st century who pushes government as the solution to the problems black citizens in the country face, is misguided.  What has been lacking all along, is the inability or unwillingness of blacks to face their predicament with steel resolve and self-discipline to achieve all they can while they live, and to defend to the death what they achieve; against all who would take away those achievements or degrade them to ineffectiveness.

Copyright © 2012: Williams LLC
All Rights Reserved: Williams LLC

C. C. Hubbard

January 18, 2012

C.C. Hubbard

or

What's R-e-e-al-l-y Wrong with Education in the U.S.

     With considerable trappings in the media today regarding deficits in education (some genuine, some not so much), especially about education for the poor and minorities, I feel compelled to write  about a person most responsible for my personal success in multiple careers.  As I approach my 73rd year, I have to say that the day my mother took me to enter first grade at C.C. Hubbard Elementary School was a day that I will always remember as my educational foundation.  After executive careers in the military, with the Boeing Company, owner of a small business; a Baccalaureate in physics, a Masters Degree in Public Administration, and an Advanced Executive MBA from Peter Drucker, I find C. C. Hubbard was with me all the way.

     C. C. Hubbard was my next door neighbor, his wife, Princess, was my third grade teacher, his daughter Eulalia was my fourth grade teacher.  I graduated as President of my class in 1957 and produced the last Year Book for C.C. Hubbard High School.  He died in 1947, two years after I entered first grade, but I remember him vividly, both as a neighbor and as a fearsome principal of my school.  After his death, the school was led by men of much less stature, capabilities, conviction, and far less favorable impact upon the community. 

     In many ways, he was THE community leader.  We had our church ministers, black doctors, black businessmen, but C.C. Hubbard was the axis around which the community was formed and functioned, until his death in 1947.  C.C. (Christopher Columbus) Hubbard became principal of Lincoln School, (re-named C.C. Hubbard School in 1943), in 1906.  He was the pillar of the "Negro" or "Colored" community of our town and of the region extending for more that 50 miles in all directions from the town.  He was the principal of the school when my mother attended grade school and high school; she went on to finish college in 1929. She died in 1945.

     Because of segregation, "Colored" children from surrounding communities were bussed into our town for their education until the time "bussing" was used to integrate schools and C.C Hubbard was finally closed.  As a result, many more children than those born in our town benefitted from the impact C.C. Hubbard had on their education.

      There were eight children in my family and all of us, except for one, who suffered from partial blindness, finished college.  My dad was a laborer who was often "laid off".  Most of the students who attended Hubbard School were from families of meager means; born into a region which practiced segregation more severely than many places in the deep South.  As we learned later of Apartheid, we felt a kindred tie to the people of South Africa due to the brutal behavior of the white community in our region. 

      Professor Hubbard was able to create such strong, educated citizens for this country because he was the center of a strong, talented, industrious segregated community that strongly supported education and supported Hubbard School.  My family, and most families warned their children that the would be spanked at home if they were spanked, or otherwise disciplined at school.

For all of my school days, you could hear "a pin drop" while class was in session -- anywhere in the school.  The support of the parents and the community for the school were key to our success.  That support came directly from the ability of C.C. Hubbard to establish and maintain a thriving community focused around education.

     So, in summary, I hope you get the picture.  Parents, (from whom all students derive) did not blindly leave the education of their children to strangers.  The community did not dis-engage from the education of their children.  Funding was largely "cast-off", or "left-over" in nature from that provided for white students(a bad thing), but C.C. Hubbard produced wonders with what he received.  I'm sure the school would have had more and achieved more,  if the "Negro" community received fair value for their tax dollars.  Because of  segregation (not a good thing), class sizes were smaller than what we experience in schools today (a good thing).  Each of my teachers from first through twelfth grade were strong professionals who built my educational foundation.  I fondly remember them all.

     Today's media would have you believe that all good things came to non-white students with integration; but for me, and those fortunate enough to attend C.C. Hubbard School, integrated education in that region was a step down.  I learned this first hand when, as an ADCO and a major in the United States Air Force, a white mother and son from the white school in our town came before me in search of advice for an officer's commission .

     I think the record will show that bad things began to happen to education for all young students in this country because racial backlash was first enacted within our schools, and then to the entire country.

Copyright © 2012: Williams LLC
All Rights Reserved: Williams LLC

    



OHIO

January 6, 2012                                                                 O H I O

Or

What’s R-e-a-l-l-y Wrong With The US?

                As Pogo would say, “We’ve met The  Enemy, and They Is US!”  Take it as you like, US can mean you and me, or US could mean the United States.    In the U.S. there is a state named OHIO.  As kids we used to cite the riddle: “what’s round on both ends, and high in the middle?”  Answer: Ohio.  It could also be the United States if you view  “O,” to denote oceans and ”hi” the elevated regions between the oceans.  But, I digress, let’s get back to Ohio.  That state alone inflicted a great deal of treachery on our nation in its first hundred years of existence by providing several of our Presidents; mostly Republican; and the worst of them was Rutherford B. Hayes. That mountebank saddled this nation with the collapse of Reconstruction;  which produced Southern Rednecks, the Klan, segregation, lynching, Jim Crow, and today’s Republican Party.

                In its current manifestation, the GOP has brought the nation to the brink of insolvency, and kicked it while it tries to recover.  We’re now in the throes of an election which will perhaps impact the future course of this nation; strangely similar to the one charted by Hayes in 1875.

                In 1830, De Tocqueville observed that the United States was ruled by a tyrannical (white) majority with two overriding goals: (1) exterminate all natives, and (2) work all blacks to death in perpetuity.  The Civil War was fought to settle the labor issue, but its aftermath led to Reconstruction, which doubled down on that second goal.  Those freed slaves who fought for the Union and had no home or job to return to after the Civil War ended,  were put to work supporting goal (1) in that part of our nation bounded by Canada, the Sierras, Missouri, and the Mexican border.

                Reconstruction also brought the “black tax” which enabled any white to confiscate anything they desired from non-whites without interference from the law.  That revenue still flows to white Southerners today because Martin Luther King discovered the importance of economics too late.  In the rest of the nation, the black tax is rapidly disappearing, leaving middle and lower-class whites to make it on their own.  The GOP is seeking to destroy government and replace it with a market-driven economic system that will work all, except the extremely rich, to death in perpetuity.  This is designed to take place in a global economy in which corporate interests trump all government control.

                Setting the stage for the Civil War, James Polk (a North-Carolinian, and an eerily-early model for George W. Bush) divided the nation by invading Mexico on trumped-up charges.  Abraham Lincoln was a member of Congress who opposed the war to no avail.  In the ensuing political squabbles, the Whig Party disappeared, the Republican Party was born, and the Know-Nothings stormed the land.  Sound familiar?  What drove it all was unbridled greed and slavery.  Check out Bernard De-Voto’s “1846, A Year of Decision” for more details.  The nation would be greatly served if in our current election, the Republican Party is given its walking papers by the voters and passes on into history.

Copyright © 2012: Williams LLC
All Rights Reserved: Williams LLC