When are we going to get over it?
Written by admin on May 29, 2009 – 6:18 am -
by Andrew M. Manis
For much of the last 40 years, ever since America “fixed†its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African-Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, “When are African-Americans finally going to get over it?†Now I want to ask “When are we white Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?â€
Recent reports that “Election Spurs ‘Hundreds’ of Race Threats, Crimes†should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in “Bombingham,†Ala., in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than “talk the talk.†Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame, we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right.
Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was a nonpolitical mental case who wanted merely to impress Jodie Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be black, and we’re back in the ’60s again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we’ve proven what conservatives are always saying Ҡthat in America anything is possible, electing a black man as president. But instead, we now hear schoolchildren from Maine to California are talking about wanting to “assassinate Obama.â€
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, “How long?†How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can — once and for all — get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with nonwhites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become president of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we start “living out the true meaning†of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that “red and yellow, black and white†all are precious in God’s sight?
Until this past Nov. 4, I didn’t believe this country would ever elect an African-American to the presidency. I still don’t believe I’ll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here’s my three-point plan during the Obama administration: First, every day that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I’m going to report to the FBI anyone I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can sing of our damnable color prejudice, “We HAVE overcome.â€
Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia.
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Shame on the Enterprise-Journal
Written by admin on May 4, 2009 – 5:50 pm -Editorial:
“Shame On the Enterprise-Journal”
by Anthony Witherspoon – Mississippi Tribune
Last week’s report in the Enterprise-Journal about Higgins teacher Nick Jenkins, intentionally omitted some very important details that I think the public should know. If you read the article last week, you may remember that the Enterprise-Journal listed all of the witnesses that testified
in the hearing. The report also gave snippets of each witness’ testimony. However, there was one witness left out of the article, Jacqueline Lumpkin.
There’s no doubt that the omission of Mrs. Lumpkin’s name and testimony was intentional. Bear with us a moment as the Mississippi-Tribune do our usual, and that is, set the record straight. Three weeks ago Mrs. Lumpkin e-mailed us a letter to the editor to be published in the Mississippi-Tribune. I also recognized that the letter had been cc’ed to others, including the Enterprise-Journal.
In the letter, Lumpkin strongly expressed her dissatisfaction with those involved in the cheerleaders’ try-outs. Mrs. Lumpkin mentioned in the letter that “a white principal†who has a daughter on the cheerleading squad may have tainted the process. There’s only one white principal in the McComb School District, Kelly Little.
Little’s confrontation with Jenkins has been the primary focus of the hearing. Last week, during cross-examination of school superintendent Terese Palmertree, Jenkin’s attorney, Edna Stringer asked if Palmertree was aware of any other complaints about Little (more specifi cally, involving a cheerleading try-out). Palmertree stated that she was unaware of any complaint brought against Little in reference to the cheerleaders’ try-outs. The next day Stringer called Lumpkin to the stand in order to impeach and discredit the testimony of Palmertree. Lumpkin testified that she did make Palmertree aware of her complaint in a meeting and a written letter. Further questions by Stringer revealed that there was a conversation between Palmertree and Lumpkin about the matter. During the discussion Palmertree asked Lumpkin if she would call Kelly and explain to her that she didn’t mean to cause her any harm by the letter to the editor in the Mississippi-Tribune. Stringer asked Palmertree why did she always request of black people who had problems with Little to apologize or bow down to her.
The Enterprise-Journal did not even mention the fact that Lumpkin testifi ed in the hearing. Then they had to nerve to print Mrs. Lumpkin’s letter
to the editor, but only after Lumpkin testifi ed in the hearing that they refused to print it three weeks ago. Last Friday, the Enterprise-Journal finally
printed the letter, but they also made sure that it was followed up by a rebuttal from Palmertree immediately below it. People, it’s time that we wake
up to the games being played by the Enterprise-Journal.
This paper has proven time after time to be the most racist establishment in our community. Yeah, I said it. It’s time out. Our eyes are open. And
those who the paper “pats on the back†we know who you are too. Our eyes are wide open.
And oh, by the way, everyone saw politics at its best when Dr. Harrell was passed over for the school board. Give me a break, resume for resume, this was a no-brainer. It just goes to show that people are more concerned about their own agendas than the children’s education. If we want better schools we should leave the politicking out.
Anthony Witherspoon,
Publisher
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