[Jimmy Hoffa is alive and well and living in Honduras under the name Enrique Ortez Colindres]My fellow crackers,
The Honduran foreign minister, Enrique Ortez Colindres, recently criticized President Obama, referring to him as "Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada," which has been translated as "that little black man who knows nothing" or "that little black man who doesn't know anything."
I am so glad that the first public figure to blurt out something racist about Obama turns out to be a foreigner, not an American.
But it is an opportunity to reflect on the current situation of American racism. Much is written about the current condition other American institutions like education, medicine, politics, literature, and so on. Why not about racism?
The emergence of Barack Obama has been a pivotal development. In his persona he has involuntarily provided wedge issues for both sides.
The traditional position of black people to biological racism is that the races are biologically equal (in spite of copious visual and anthropometric information to the contrary).
The more modern "cultural pride" position involved wearing dashikis and talking about African heritage as though modern Africa were not a dreary row of post-colonial impoverished AIDS-riddled corrupt dictatorships.
One effect of the cultural pride position was to add a new link to the chain of euphemisms running from the post-civil war "freedman" to "black" to turn of the century "colored" to "negro" to "minority", back to "black". Collectively "ghetto" was borrowed from the Jews and quickly morphed to "community". And now "African American", with the attendant quibble about whether the phrase should contain a hyphen or not.
The notion was that African Americans were just another immigrant group like the Italian-Americans or the Polish-Americans (but unlike Irish-American - it was not pejorative). The difficulty of the analogy was that there actually was little or no heritage actually handed down from Africa. Indeed unlike Italy or Poland, Africa is a continent, not a country. A geographic description, not a national one. The difficulty was illustated by the Arthur Haley in "Roots" and the almost magical coincidence of finding recollection of Kunta Kinte on both sides of the Atlantic.
In fact, the people it is meant to describe is one that come into existence here in the New World, not in Africa. Like the Brazilians, the Mexicans, the Cubans, and indeed the Americans. The metaphorical nature of the expression was brought home by the rise of Barack Obama, an American whose father was an African.
African Americans were uncomfortable with Obama during the primaries because he clearly wasn't one of them. Their historical experience was the poorer areas of big American cities, preceded by rural poverty in the American south, and before that, slavery. Obama shared none of that.
That discomfort with Obama is shared by white traditional racists as well. Their racism is an inarticulate hostility to a servile class in order to maintain their own minimal social status. This racism was all about the bottom of the overclass resisting the ambitions and pretensions of a servile underclass. Obama is not descended from anybody who was ever a member of a servile class.
The Republican Party has attempted to recycle the image of the Uppity Nigger to its modern incarnation, the "elitist". This image has failed to gain traction because Obama is not an upstart (of which "uppity" is an illiteralism) from a servile class. He really is elite.
The traditional formulation of this kind of social superiority was, "Would you want your sister to marry one?" This has lost its teeth because now your sister would definitely be marrying up if she married into the Obama family.
One curious kind of racial privilege is about the use of racism itself. The word "nigger" is forbidden to whites because it is seen as fiercely racist and pejorative when used by whites. By contrast, "nigger" is seen as ironic or affectionate when used by blacks.
As it stands now the rule is asymmetrical and unfair. Blacks may say something that whites may not. I propose to take that back. There should be one rule for all.
I propose that whites should call each other "cracker". It should be ironic and affectionate. And we should make a great show of pretending to become furious and offended at any black who uses that word in any way at all.
When they are talking about someone else using it, let them call it the "c-word". Any black of any note caught using it in public should be fired from his position and be forever tainted and unemployable as a racist.
So, my cracker brothahs, we have to give up rollin' over to the man. When any mo' fo' African American be dissin' us as crackers, we don't have to take it any more. Organize and kick his ass out.
POSTSCRIPT
Upon further reflection, erecting our own magical 'you may not say it' word does not address the issue. It merely makes two stupid prohibitions instead of one. Better to just pull the teeth of the nastiness.
The solution is to expropriate the word. Whites, and especially Chinese, must start calling each other 'nigger'. It should be a friendly and ironic expression of affection and solidarity. That will eventually make the black-to-black meaning of the word its only meaning.
Yo' Harvey, how ya doin', nigger? Yo' Dave and Xiao, how you niggers doin'? Well, I hope. It will take a little getting used to, but we can do it. Yes, we can.
The Honduran foreign minister, Enrique Ortez Colindres, recently criticized President Obama, referring to him as "Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada," which has been translated as "that little black man who knows nothing" or "that little black man who doesn't know anything."
I am so glad that the first public figure to blurt out something racist about Obama turns out to be a foreigner, not an American.
But it is an opportunity to reflect on the current situation of American racism. Much is written about the current condition other American institutions like education, medicine, politics, literature, and so on. Why not about racism?
The emergence of Barack Obama has been a pivotal development. In his persona he has involuntarily provided wedge issues for both sides.
The traditional position of black people to biological racism is that the races are biologically equal (in spite of copious visual and anthropometric information to the contrary).
The more modern "cultural pride" position involved wearing dashikis and talking about African heritage as though modern Africa were not a dreary row of post-colonial impoverished AIDS-riddled corrupt dictatorships.
One effect of the cultural pride position was to add a new link to the chain of euphemisms running from the post-civil war "freedman" to "black" to turn of the century "colored" to "negro" to "minority", back to "black". Collectively "ghetto" was borrowed from the Jews and quickly morphed to "community". And now "African American", with the attendant quibble about whether the phrase should contain a hyphen or not.
The notion was that African Americans were just another immigrant group like the Italian-Americans or the Polish-Americans (but unlike Irish-American - it was not pejorative). The difficulty of the analogy was that there actually was little or no heritage actually handed down from Africa. Indeed unlike Italy or Poland, Africa is a continent, not a country. A geographic description, not a national one. The difficulty was illustated by the Arthur Haley in "Roots" and the almost magical coincidence of finding recollection of Kunta Kinte on both sides of the Atlantic.
In fact, the people it is meant to describe is one that come into existence here in the New World, not in Africa. Like the Brazilians, the Mexicans, the Cubans, and indeed the Americans. The metaphorical nature of the expression was brought home by the rise of Barack Obama, an American whose father was an African.
African Americans were uncomfortable with Obama during the primaries because he clearly wasn't one of them. Their historical experience was the poorer areas of big American cities, preceded by rural poverty in the American south, and before that, slavery. Obama shared none of that.
That discomfort with Obama is shared by white traditional racists as well. Their racism is an inarticulate hostility to a servile class in order to maintain their own minimal social status. This racism was all about the bottom of the overclass resisting the ambitions and pretensions of a servile underclass. Obama is not descended from anybody who was ever a member of a servile class.
The Republican Party has attempted to recycle the image of the Uppity Nigger to its modern incarnation, the "elitist". This image has failed to gain traction because Obama is not an upstart (of which "uppity" is an illiteralism) from a servile class. He really is elite.
The traditional formulation of this kind of social superiority was, "Would you want your sister to marry one?" This has lost its teeth because now your sister would definitely be marrying up if she married into the Obama family.
One curious kind of racial privilege is about the use of racism itself. The word "nigger" is forbidden to whites because it is seen as fiercely racist and pejorative when used by whites. By contrast, "nigger" is seen as ironic or affectionate when used by blacks.
As it stands now the rule is asymmetrical and unfair. Blacks may say something that whites may not. I propose to take that back. There should be one rule for all.
I propose that whites should call each other "cracker". It should be ironic and affectionate. And we should make a great show of pretending to become furious and offended at any black who uses that word in any way at all.
When they are talking about someone else using it, let them call it the "c-word". Any black of any note caught using it in public should be fired from his position and be forever tainted and unemployable as a racist.
So, my cracker brothahs, we have to give up rollin' over to the man. When any mo' fo' African American be dissin' us as crackers, we don't have to take it any more. Organize and kick his ass out.
POSTSCRIPT
Upon further reflection, erecting our own magical 'you may not say it' word does not address the issue. It merely makes two stupid prohibitions instead of one. Better to just pull the teeth of the nastiness.
The solution is to expropriate the word. Whites, and especially Chinese, must start calling each other 'nigger'. It should be a friendly and ironic expression of affection and solidarity. That will eventually make the black-to-black meaning of the word its only meaning.
Yo' Harvey, how ya doin', nigger? Yo' Dave and Xiao, how you niggers doin'? Well, I hope. It will take a little getting used to, but we can do it. Yes, we can.
TWAT!
ReplyDeleteYou go Bubba!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is the Hibernian retard Christy. He says stuff like that because he is too stupid to think of anything to say.
ReplyDelete