Terri thanks! BTW here's one vote to having more posts like this truly needed one. Thanks GNB!
The problem with the idea of a conversation on race is that white Americans don't want to have this conversation.
The whole Wright "controversy" has shown how unwilling and most of all unprepared white America is to have an adult conversation about this subject.
The deep well of ignorance that we all have witnessed in the days since the Wright story broke convinces me that before we can have the conversation there is a great deal of prodding that has to be done just to convince most of white America that this conversation is necessary.
Then there needs to be education on the history not only of blacks in this country but all minorities because without that we'll get the kind of stupidity that makes people pronounce Rev. Wright's comments about AIDS in the black community as pure insanity or confusion why Latinos have their own historical issues and anger towards this country.
I don't have the slightest clue how to make those two things happen but the fact that Obama has refused to back away from Wright and his own comments on race in this country is encouraging.
very well written terri. i think the backlash, in a large way, stems from the fact that a lot of these people have not ever forgiven the black churches for their role in the civil rights movement. after all, it's harder to keep up your derision on the reverend martin luther king or the reverend ralph bunch. had they been ditch diggers or taxi drivers it would have been much easier for the haters.
i grew up on a reservation in a remote part of arizona. i grew up there mixed race in the 50s. most of the exposure i had to churchs came from what ever missionaries were willing to brave the isolation, crushing poverty and general neglect and despair that were part and parcel of our daily lives. the most dedicated of them would last two years. in a way, it was like having a comparitive religion course as the main focus of your schooling and commmunity life.
i have only been able to attend one black church. it was as a musician. a piano player i was working with took us to his home church in a small town in arkansas. we spent the day, from early in the morning, through lunch, then past dinner playing, clapping and singing. i loved it.
i absolutely agree that this discussion needs to be kept alive and vibrant. i sincerely hope that it can be kept on the higher level that obama tried to bring it to.
while there are those among us who are less free than others, the freedom of all is diminished. i want that to change.
whew! - thanks to HS and the GNB for asking to hear a bit more...balto, I agree with you- the thing is, I hope that the conversation itself is the prodding. I think it has to be, because I, too, have no idea how to get folks ready for the stuff that needs to be said. And, some of what has to be said is on our side...
i think the backlash, in a large way, stems from the fact that a lot of these people have not ever forgiven the black churches for their role in the civil rights movement.
Damn, MHS...I honestly didn't consider that, and it seems sadly plausible...ty for the insight...
The problem with the idea of a conversation on race is that white Americans don't want to have this conversation.
The whole Wright "controversy" has shown how unwilling and most of all unprepared white America is to have an adult conversation about this subject. -TerriinTokyo
I'm in agreement with you Terri, at least with the excerpted portion of your post, as per above. Several months ago I posted a comment here on the GNB stating that White Americans would not vote for Brack Obama. At the time, I was a supporter of, and a contributor to the Edwards and Dodd campaigns. Making a long story short, I eventually transferred my support to the Obama campaign despite some reservations about where he stood on certain issues.
After the last few weeks of watching a potentially transformational moment in this country's history turn into a sad spectacle of divisive race-baiting and powermongering, I'm back to square one. The powers that be have successfully found the means to affect what I have been calling "The Assassination Of Barack Obama" for the past week, in my conversations with family, friends and colleagues. They have turned Rev. Wright and his imprudent rants into the ammunition for their mass media Barret 82A1/M107 .50 caliber sniper rifles and started the process of killing off the aspirations of millions of us, without having to shed a single drop of blood.
DocBopper, actually, I was quoting Baltogeek...I don't have an answer to the mainstream media attempt to shut down the conversation (and the Obama campaign). I'm going to keep on sending letters to protest illogical insanity like the bleatings of that Buchanan idiot and hope that numbers of people protesting will make a difference in pulling the worst off the air.
But, more than anything, I hope to talk directly with people, face to face, about Obama, and race and growing up in the church...and to hear what folks have to say. I'm pretty conflict-averse, so this is not easy to think about, especially because I really don't have 'the' solution, other than trying to keep the door and the conversation open.
I think that there is a chance you're right, and that not enough White Americans will vote for a Black man for president. But I also think that there's a chance for change with this candidate and I want to do what I can to help that change to happen...
What a brilliant post, Hubris. Can I just say, to read "The people could fly" on a political blog reduced me to tears. We are genuinely expanding the conversation, the limits of discourse.
I knew this ugliness was waiting to come forth. Woman-hating is more socially acceptable in particular formats, but once "they'd" persuaded Democrats to begin treating Hillary like a joke, they'd turn their sites on Obama. And it will be those of us who are still pissed at you about the Hillary shit who WILL step up to the plate and fight like hell to stop the same crap being aimed at Barack.
Because lies are lies, and woman-hating cannot flourish without white supremacy, and vice versa. We will ALL go down to the river together.
I'd like to add one historical point here: The only institution in the African-American community that was not sold back into servitude by whites at the end of reconstruction were black churches. Their autonomy has been uninterrupted since then. That alone makes them a target for the power elite. I'm NOT a Christian, but defending black churches is not about Christianity, or patriotism -- it's about the autonomous voice of a people, and we do NOT get to judge or put our sticky fingers on it. In my opinion.
I find the suggestion (common among well-to-do "moderates" of all colors, actually), that there our society is somehow "past" race as an issue. I particularly love the folks who have read just enough to be dangerous, who say things like "Race is a social construct, so if we just ignore it, it will go away" or some such nonsense.
Well, yes, "race" is a social construct, but...uh...what's the gap in median wage between black and white? How about the difference in incarceration and recidivism? How about the average attained advanced degree or high-school diploma?
Here's where these arguments get really dangerous in that wonderfully nasty, syrupy sweet, passive aggressive sensitive new age rebirthing ceremony kinda way...
IF race is a social construct (the reasoning goes)...
and IF there are all these laws on the books about Affirmative Action...
and IF everyone has been exposed to and sensitized and lectured about the history of slavery, jim crow, and etc - hell, there's even a NATIONAL HOLIDAY for MLK jr.'s birthday, for crying out loud! - since at least the mid 1970's (wow!)...
Well, then, all those disparities in income, education, incarceration, crime rate, teen pregnancy rate...must somehow arise, NOT as a result of "race" (which is a social construct that we must all ignore!), rather those disparities must all arise as some sort of fatal flaw in the character of African American society.
Must be all them papas that deserted their families. Must be all them black preachers. Must be that the legacy of slavery+jimcrow+welfare dependency has destroyed the fabric of black society.
Because, as we all know, it simply is IMPOSSIBLE that race is still clearly front and center as one of the most important social/cultural issues of the modern era.
Right?
Because racism is so 1950's.
Right?
(please note, this rant is about race in particular, and not about sex/gender, which is an equally ugly, equally fertile ground for hypocrisy and stupidity, and an equally urgent issue)
OK, I'm a 44 year-old white male who grew up in a lily-white liberal college town in Oregon where race wasn't really an issue. The only blacks I ever really knew growing up were the athletes at the Univ. of Oregon who would sometimes come coach at my HS. But for the past 5 years I've been living Waco, TX where I've discovered that EVERYTHING is about race. EVERYTHING.
Politics? All about race. There's nothing remotely close to race in accuracy as a predictor of someone's political affiliations here in Texas. I can't count how many times white neighbors just looked puzzled when they found out I wasn't Republican.
Education? All about race. Texas school-district boundaries are gerrymandered in incredible fashion to provide white suburban schools for the white suburban kids and keep black kids in black schools.
Real Estate? All about race. Give me an address in Waco and I can predict with great accuracy the race and ethnicity of the inhabitant.
Professions? All about race. Most professional jobs are white. Blue collar and service jobs that were once black are rapidly becoming Hispanic. Black small businesses are getting KILLED by Wal-Mart. The black community is really getting squeezed here and I don't blame young educated blacks one bit for fleeing to better opportunities in Dallas and Houston.
Religion? All about race. The few truly mixed-race churches are the exception that proves the rule.
As for notions such as:
i think the backlash, in a large way, stems from the fact that a lot of these people have not ever forgiven the black churches for their role in the civil rights movement.
I think it's not nearly that sophisticated or subtle. I think the truth is this. There is a whole generation of white Americans who have been schooled to know that overt racism is simply passe. Crotchety old men in their 70s are the only ones left who can "get away" with being politically incorrect racists in polite society because everyone just shrugs and says..."they're of a different generation"
So when something comes along like this "Wright controversy" it's just a license for all those latent racists who know better to go all "concern troll" on Obama. Especially when FOX News and talk radio point the way. If it wasn't Wright it would be some other manufactured "controversy" designed to let the latent racists run wild with their shock and "concern". I don't think in a million years that anyone was actually shocked and offended by Wright. It's just that pretending to be offended is one of the few politically acceptable ways left for whites to express their racism to each other.
Excellent post and equally excellent comments.
I agree that race infuses almost every aspect of our lives, despite our pretests to the contrary as a society. And it almost seems more insidious in places like where I live (Boston) or other supposedly liberal areas. Scratch the surface just a tad and boom there it is, and it is not subtle. Housing, schools, where the highways were and are built, where the worst pollution is, and on and on. And the whole illegal immigrant issue is such a stand in for the old black/white racial debate, too -- a way of acceptably being racist. In many cities, there is such insane fear of the brown people taking over, it infuses everything and makes for some really crazy politics. I worked for the campaign of the first Latino to run city-wide for city council in a city near Boston. The campaign started out okay, but the last week was the most racist thing I'd seen in ages -- and the most inflammatory stuff came from another (supposedly progressive) Democrat in the primary election. It's one thing to intellectually know that that stuff is just below the surface, but to actually see it play out was really something else. And so sad, especially since it worked. I have to believe that in the long run situations like that will eventually go our way as the scared reactionary old timers protecting their turf pass away or move out to avoid living with brown and black people, as well as dirty hippies of all stripes LOL. Here's hoping...
I had a visceral reaction yesterday to reading 'I'm colorblind- race doesn't matter'. I recoiled, and...wait a minute, that wasn't it - it was a description of an older White republican, self-described 'proud redneck', who would be crossing over to vote for Obama, because the fact that he's Black doesn't matter...
maybe that word 'matter' doesn't mean what I thought it meant 
I also need to go look up 'colorblind'...I guess I keep wondering: when do we get to the part when who we are not only matters, but is a celebration?
tks, y'all for the welcome
Lovely post, and so true.
When I first caught some of the Wright clip, it was without any introductory context. So my first reaction was an astonishment that this was being the source of such a fuss.
When I realized this was being used as a stick to beat Obama with, I understood why they might seize on it... and also, what it said about THEM, and about people who might be offended by it.
Because, while I'm white, I've been to black churches occasionally, and, more importantly, had enough serious conversations with African American friends to be somewhat familiar with what Rev. Wright was getting at and with the style of the discourse.
Anyone who does not understand the context of Wright's sermons has never given a thought to what it really means to be non-white in America.
Perhaps they are genuinely taken aback by the anger and passion shown in the clips. But they obviously don't have a clue about the real life experiences that led to it being expressed in this way.
And that blindness, that inability to take the smallest step in another's shoes, is what keeps them trapped in their ignorance and fear.
Because people like that are not just clueless about race. They are clueless about sexism, and classism, and all the other isms they embrace because they have no drive towards empathy, and have embraced a political view that encourages them to keep on being that way.
Senator Obama's speech resonated with me because it acknowledged an attitude a lot of my friends would bring up when the conversation drifted towards racial attitudes. They would sometimes bring up something that happened to an older friend or relative, and with a hint of relief in their voice, say, "But that's gotten better." Unspoken, but something we both knew, was the fact that other things had not.
We were friends, and could touch on such things. But the fact that the fuss could be so overblown, and still have to trigger a major speech by the candidate concerned, is proof, to anyone who wishes to look, that there is still a great deal further to this road we must travel.
I hope, together.
The only reason the Wright story had salience is that it fit a pre-existing narrative creating entirely by the corporate media in order to discredit Obama(or any black candidate for that matter). And that message was "Barack Obama hates America."
Yep, flag lapel pins, yellow magnetic bumper stickers, putting your hand over your heart during the National Anthem, push the most symbolic shitty part of the civic religion and cram it down the throats of anyone who says differently. And this made them think Obama was an easy mark. And you know why? Because there are certain things that a lot of whites expect out of their non-white politicians, and the most important of these is gratefulness.
You see, as a black person or a brown person or one of them "ethnic whites" you are to be treated like some immigrant who just got off the boat. You aren't to criticize American policy anywhere and you aren't to whine or get angry about any injustices you may have faced in the past. Cause we white people built this country, and you guys...well you are just visitors. As Barbara Bush would say "This is working out very well for you."
So when Reverend Wright says "God Damn America" after listing all sorts of national sins, it gets at the very core of the enterprise that the white elite has been reiterating all these years. The notion that "Don't you understand...you don't get to have an opinion about what happens in this country. You get to serve a role that we will designate to you. Step outside that role and we will destroy you." And Obama has been treading that line for so long. A black man that doesn't have to go through the motions of capitulation and subservience every time he talks.
Race ain't but another word for power. This country is still segregated and the race question that divides us from caring about what happens to the other needs to stop or it will destroy us all. I am sick of tired of the enfeebled state that our pettiness inflicts on one another. This is why I get pissed when Clinton just dismisses Obama as an empty-suit speechifier. We need people to make speeches about bringing us together. And notice that Obama has NEVER talked about that in a political or policy-centered sense but always in a national sense. And to do that he has to eschew the paragons of political symbolism and reassert a true and substantial vision of what the hell it means to be an American. And why that even matters(hint: flag lapel pins ain't part of it).
Identity politics is doomed to failure because it takes the spotlight off the area it should be on, class, and instead diverts the focus to other, less significant areas, like ethnicity, race, or gender. Say what you will about racism and sexism but the sad truth is that at the end of the day, the rich white man and the rich black man have a hell of a lot more in common than the rich black man and the poor black man, or the rich white woman and the poor white woman. Just look at the Troubles in Belfast, all those years and wealthy Catholics and Protestants lived in harmony in the posh neighbourhoods while they laughed as the poor fought among themselves in the ghettoes, keeping the wealthy rich and getting richer.
So as America is heading towards an economic crisis, and poor people are tempted to start thinking in terms of class, naturally the Pat Buchanans are trotted out to stop this from happening. But seeing as there is an ever increasing segment of wealthy blacks, naturally with the same economic interests as their more pale skinned rich brethren, they too must do their part by trotting out the Rev. Wrights of the world to make certain poor whites and blacks never see eye to eye.
Jeremaih Wright follows the intellectual founder of Black liberation theology, James Cone, and his A Black Theology of Liberation. This book is just what the multi-racial ruling wealthy class ordered, a diversion away from the real problems by taking a mindless stroll through the minefield of racism. Some relevant quotes:
1. "Whiteness is the symbol of the Anti-christ."
2. "The goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from alien gods."
3. "The black experience is the feeling one has when attacking the enemy of black humanity by throwing a Molotov cocktail into a white-owned building and watching it go up in flames. We know, of course, that getting rid of evil takes something more than burning down buildings, but one must start somewhere."
4. "Black theology seeks to analyze the satanic nature of whiteness and by doing so prepare all nonwhites for revolutionary action."
5. "We have reached our limit of tolerance, and if it means death with dignity or life with humiliation we will choose the former. And if that is the choice, we will take some honkies with us."
6. "To be black is to be committed to destroying everything this country loves and adores."
(Taken from an Amazon review)
If it is not already apparent (due to the blindness identity politics demands of its adherents), the evilness of these ideas can be seen by reversing the white and the black or substituting the white and black for male and female.
Barrack Obama certainly must be threatening the class interests of rich whites and blacks, and therefore expect to see much more from the Pat Buchanans and Jeremiah Wrights whose common interest is to insist on ignoring class in order to ensure that poor whites and blacks forever remain divided. Whether America moves forward or falls back largely depends on whether poorer Americans are able to resist the urge to tribalism and to unite to further their economic interests. Knowing America, I’ll put my money on the Buchanan / Wrights winning this round.
Terri, what a magnificent piece. Thank you.
Kevin, have you read the book? I don't quote from it in the post, because I skimmed through it many years ago and don't remember specifics - I've put it on order and will read it when it gets here.
I think context is important in this conversation about race. I do not agree with you that Rev. Wright, a man whose church has been a beacon of light in the AfricanAmerican community, and is also beloved by White American UCC members, can be equated in any way with Patrick Buchanan, whose latest withering ignorance notes that we Black people should be grateful for being slaves. Its startling and sad to me that you think that they are both racists.
Speaking as a Black American with many years of experience of racism: Buchanan is a racist, a bigot who despises people of color because of our color, our difference from whites. And Buchanan has not just started spouting his poison in aid of distracting people from the current economic crisis: he has been hateful and loud about it for many years.
Rev. Wright is a Black American who hates the oppression of his people, that Buchanan espouses, and whose words have sometimes veered into bitter territory, out of pain and frustration that I understand all too well. I dare say he doesn't hate white people, but he does despise bigots and the practical damage they do to our union.
And to say that rich whites and rich blacks are equivalent is, I believe, misguided as well. The people in power in our society are mainly rich white people. The few Black or other ethnic Americans who are at the top do not change that balance of power.
I think that race (even as an artificial construct) and class are both part of the conversation. To deny either is to say that the broad experience of difference is not relevant, and IMHO, that denial is its own kind of blindness.
and, here's more context, from folks at Trinity Church itself.
Terri,
I too ordered the book. I have read a couple of articles about it and I am looking forward to seeing the context of those statements.
Politics is very generally a struggle between universalists and particularists. These categories are defined by how tightly or widely people draw their us-them circles. People on the left tend to draw very large circles; they see society in a holistic fashion and therefore see most people as part of “us”. People on the right tend to draw very small circles around their particular tribal interest and condemn the rest of society to the “them” column.
Pat Buchanan blames the condition of his tribe, poor white people, on the burden of black dependence. In other words if only poor whites weren’t forced to transfer money to poor blacks then they too could escape poverty. Rev. Wright blames the condition of his tribe, poor blacks, on white oppression. If whitey would just stop holding the brothers down they could escape poverty. What they both do though is obscure the truth. Poverty, both white and black is caused by a combination of macro-economic malfeasance and micro-cultural dysfunction. But to be clear, both Buchanan and Wright are members of the wealthy elite whose interests are furthered by their actions in fracturing the economically struggling. The fact that black separatists do good for their community is no different than if white separatists were doing their best to stem the meth epidemic in their communities. The good they do is real, the bad they do is in their ideologies of separation.
So while Buchanan hones in on black cultural dysfunctions and thus away from the concentrations of wealth; Wright diverts the glare away from the multi-racial wealthy elite to the much more general scapegoat of “white” oppressors.
Barrack Obama on the other hand is a universalist who sees society as a whole. Elites will always exist, but the basic societal architecture of America is so top heavy that is is teetering badly. The proper model is that of social democratic Europe. But to get there poorer Americans needs to unite. But America's traditional dividing lines are race. The key is recognizing that the mirror image of racism is still racism. To imitate our enemies is to imitate their evil. The opposite of racism is universalism, seeing all Americans as us (yes, even rich people) and to demand a fair deal for the bottom half of the economic ladder. The whole society will thrive, as we generally see in Europe. But to again break down to the temptation of tribal particularism, as so many generations of Americans have, will only lead to more misery. To get elected Obama will have to continue to articulate his universalism. To defeat him the wealthy-backed media elites will try to tribalize him. And their best asset in this fight will be Rev. Wright and the ideology of black liberation theology.
Christianity is the perfect universalist creed--so clearly on the side of the poor--to further the goal of social justice. So to particularize Christianity, to racialize God, to create a new chosen people, is to not only bastardize this great religion but it takes one of the most powerful tools, so intelligently welded by Dr. King, right out of our hands.
Hi Terri - I'm Mary from Dean for Iowa days. We shared dinner at the Washington table. I said Hi to you at YKOS where you were a beloved celeb. This is a beautiful post so thanks for it's clarity and truth. The young adults these days have friends, lovers, and relatives of many races. They don't fight the same fight that we did in my coming of age days; they really have gone beyond us, a good thing. Now my generation is old, and I notice that some old farts forgot everything learned in the 50, 60's and 70's and their eldering brains go to their racist default loop. This is your time, your new century to be led by your choice, Obama:
"This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit."
Kevin:
So Buchanan and Wright are both wealthy members of the elite, and therefore their messages are equivalent, just speaking to different tribes? I don't know how you know Rev. Wright's financial status, but even that's immaterial to my point, which is that we see him through a different lens.
I won't link to Fox, but here's Rev. Wright making his point in the face of the usual obtuse, disingenuous nonsense from Hannity:
WRIGHT: OK. The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history.
It's not 'tribalizing' or 'particularizing' for me to speak for myself about my experience, against the perfect storm of forces that would rather I not speak at all - including folks who only want me to speak about certain things, and ignore others.
On racializing God: too late, that train left the station when Whites brought slaves to America's shores and taught them a distorted brand of Christianity. It is not surprising that it's hard for folks whose God has been in their own image to be able to embrace it when others take God in theirs.
My time in Europe (I traveled to France, Germany and the UK off and on for many years, as a minor corporate exec) did not give me a sense that Europe is a panacea when it comes to race or class - just different. I wouldn't presume to judge based on my limited experience.
But, even all of this is beside the main point I want to make, which is that, even if Rev. Wright and Pat Buchanan, and all they stand for, were equivalent (which I believe they are not), my experience of America's racism and my experience of America's class hypocrisy are both valid and worthy of discussion, focus, and understanding. This doesn't preclude Obama's universalism. Certainly Rev. Wright's teachings, over the course of his career, do not preclude or prevent a universalist society that remedies the imbalances of class.
Insofar as such a society hears and honors all of the voices it contains, I argue that Black Liberation Theology is one step on the path to that best of all possible futures.
MaryinBelltown | 03.23.08 - 11:56 am | #
Hey Mary! Of course I remember that Washington table: the Tokyo4Dean people talk about that incredible experience and our Dean family even now. Thank you so much for joining in at the GNB and I hope to see you at Netroots Nation this year...
As a Native American, I am frankly sick to death of African Americans pretending that they are the only ones who have ever been victimized. How many African Americans have you seen who acquire the skills of learned helplessness so that they elect to remain on government sponsored reservations? Why, the nation would not stand for it! Honestly, folks, ALL of you came here after we were already here. You took our land, our belongings, and our lives, and as of 2008, I am now supposed to feel sorry fro at least some of you? Methinks you have all been smoking some funny tobacco. As for Preacher Wright, I would suggest he live the life of a reservation resident for half a year, and then let's see how loud-mouthed he is about the condition of his life as an African American. If you want to select points, try this one: When will we have a Native American in the White House?
The present despairing state of Black America is neither a baffling phenomenon, nor the result of some innate racial deficiency among Blacks, but rather instead the result of the White elite
’s innate proclivity for always reinventing devious methods of suppressing its Black population-- as a means of maintaining its white dominance and control. The architect of the modern method of suppression now used against Black America was the late Dr. Edward Bernays.
Dr. Edward Bernay
’s was a nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the most skillful experts in mass manipulation. He invented the modern day Madison Avenue advertising Agencies by using his Uncle Sigmund's knowledge of the human psyche to make people feel they needed whatever product was being advertised. Edward Bernays also invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
His most notorious feat was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom.
You've Come a Long Way Baby!
Bernays was convinced that this mass method of manipulation was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. For him it was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle, Sigmund Freud, had identified, people could be made happy, docile, angry, self hating or even confused.
During World War I, Bernays and journalist Walter Lippman were hired by then United States President, Woodrow Wilson, to participate in the Creel Commission, the mission of which was to sway popular opinion in favor of entering the war, on the side of Britain. The war propaganda campaign of Bernays and Lippman produced such an intense anti-German hysteria as to permanently impress America
’s governmental elites with the potential of large-scale propaganda to control public opinion. Edward Bernays advised US presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Eisenhower and served numerous corporations and business associations. This was the start of the mass media and governmental psychological manipulation programs which has come to covertly dominate today's world. One of Bernays biggest fans was Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, a fact about which Bernays bragged proudly. A common pattern used repeatedly by Bernays was to turn a harmless entity into a fearsome enemy through lies and manufactured news items. Then use the "threat" to justify attacking the entity. Edward Bernays coined the terms "group mind" and "engineering consent", important concepts in practical propaganda work. Bernays said in his 1928 book Propaganda, that; "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. He further states that; “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it” The current public relations industry is a direct outgrowth of Bernays' work and his method of mass psychological manipulation is also still currently used by the United States government.
The U.S. Government has an extensive history of conducting planned campaigns of extensive strategic psychological operations [based upon the works of Benays] through the national media to influence and direct the perception and climate of the nation towards its governmental objectives. Given that the nineteen sixties were a period of massive black rebellion and unrest that eroded the American global image and increasingly placed the nation
’s peace and stability in dire jeopardy and perhaps most particularly because the nations top sociologist and psychologist knew that those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. This quite logically necessitated that the U.S. Government employ these same proven methods of mass psychological manipulation against its entire African American population.
The U.S. Government now secretly deliberately disseminates false deplorably racially devaluing statistics and propaganda about its Black population that are deliberately designed to adversely manipulate and shape the minds and collective consciousness of its African American population-- corrupting African Americans sense of unity, cohesion, and reason-- and fostering a consensual national environment of where in which its Black population is more easily divided, exploited and ultimately suppressed.
When most people hear the term of psychological manipulation they usually think in terms of the classic "conspiracy theory" that refers to overt mind control such as mind altering drugs with carefully hypnotic programming. However, the real and true dangers are Bernays well proven methods of affecting the unconscious mind by using deception, and psychological manipulation. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles. The constant relentless bombardment with deplorably negative images of themselves that of which African Americans are so inundated with, through a white controlled media, is a very carefully and deliberately designed psychological conditioning program. Its unrelenting daily assault on the Black psyche is designed to corrupt African Americans
’ sense of racial unity and cohesion, mold the character of self-hatred, engender self-doubt, self-loathing, and distrust among their group. And while insinuating that Blacks admire, respect, and trust only Whites.
This method of psychological manipulation works by affecting the unconscious mind through deception. It uses the psychology of deceit to adversely affect the recipient group in terms of their behavior. Here is a simplified example of how this is being implemented against African Americans. Let us, for example, imagine that a crew of people was aboard their own massive ship and that this ship was being shadowed by another neighboring ship that was constantly broadcasting derogatory messages to the first group. Such messages as that their ship was lesser, smaller, not seaworthy, perhaps slowly sinking or that their crew was incompetent and was planning a mutiny. With time, the group receiving the negative messages, being unable to refute or to confirm these derogatory messages and deficiencies will grow weary and paranoid of the negative messages and will eventually comes to accept these negative assessments of themselves. The perception created by the taunting now unconsciously influences how the taunted group perceives themselves, subsequently causing them to become distrustful of themselves, doubting themselves, hating themselves and, eventually, fighting among themselves. The taunted group may even become so besieged by deep feelings of inadequacy that they may even jump into the sea and attempt to swim towards the taunting ship now believing it to be superior to their own ship even if their own ship was in fact better. The basis of this concept of mind manipulation is that the human being's most critical aspect is the mind and it works by affecting the mind through deception.
Within a real life setting this mortifying psychosocial treatment is precisely what is being deliberately done to African Americans through corporate owned and governmentally controlled media outlets that deliberately subjected them to seeing only the fraudulently worst in themselves. This is done through an immense campaign of false derogatory misinformation and false negative media reports and statistics that are created by U.S. governmental agencies and then leaked to its collaborators in the news media, which either knowingly or unknowingly carry the stories as their own. These false information about African Americans are then disseminated unrelentingly everywhere; it is deliberately perpetuated through news releases in magazine articles, radio, television, press releases, documentaries, and false census reports perpetuating and framing the myth of Whites
’ racial, moral, and ethical superiority over its Black population. However, the weapon is not in how the message is carried, but is instead within the messages that it carries and how these messages detrimentally affects the Black population at large.
The overrepresentation of Black crimes and grossly exaggerated statistics of Black on Black violence within this psychosocial program are intentionally designed to create fear, hatred, and distrust thus molding the character of disunity and self-hatred among the Black community. [Black
’s own personal negative experiences and interactions with their fellow Blacks then merely confirm the program’s perpetuated message that it is they that are their own worst enemies]. The ultimately goal of this governmental psychosocial treatment of African Americans is to destroy the Black unity and cohesion that was historically the cornerstone of civil rights gains and that was a crucial factor of the survival of African Americans through more than four hundred years of racial oppression. [Logic dictates that given that unity and cohesion among African Americans was responsible for the demise of White America’s past system of blatant, institutionalized racism, then destroying this unity would be an essential objective of this psychological manipulation program.]
All African Americans have experienced the burden of this system of applied psychological conditioning, some more severely than others have. I
Terri,
Buchanan is a racists, Wright is a racist. If you want to have a conversation about race, you first have to be honset with yourself.
[Although this literature references African Americans, much of what is discussed is applicable to all people of African descent.]
How have unity, racial pride, and educational aspiration, once hallmarks of Black identity so dramatically declined? How did we African Americans become living contradictions of our former selves? Do we continue to accept the easy and convenient answer that these admirable cultural traits all merely disintegrated when integration and other subsequent opportunities became available? Furthermore how did the white race become the litmus test and standard for all humanity despite their brutally racist history to the contrary of where of which all other races has been either their enemies or their victims?
Do we continue to close our eyes or do we now open them now recognizing the truth about what is really happening.
Through out western history there has been a consistent practice or where in which when ever those in power wanted to suppress or to destroy a group within their populous they've done so by portraying that group as a fearsome enemy or a major problem of the society through lies and manufactured news items. These negative imagery’s were used to socially engineer a national consent that justifies mistreating the group. This same type propaganda technique was used by Adolph Hitler to facilitate a national consensual setting that allowed his heinous mistreatment of the Jews. Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels portrayed them as a fearsome enemy of German society through lies and manufactured news items. These negative imageries were used to justify their annihilation.
Difficult as it may be for many to accept ,however this dispicable trend continues today in America. Although the United States Government portrays itself as the leading ethical and moral authority of the world and professes equal rights for all American citizens, its oldest and most important objective has always been an unyielding commitment towards the preservation of its White dominance and control. Therefore, if the U.S. government treated its Black population in a manner which did not promote maintaining its White dominance and control, it would be diametrically opposed to itself. This hidden scenario has always necessitated the U.S. Government to secretly use every conceivable means and opportunity to suppress the advancement and growth of its Black population; even those suppressive methods that contradict its own stated moral and ethical values.
While this may sound very preposterous for some, it is however not uncommon. For since the beginning of recorded history, ruling governmental bodies of nearly every nation have involved themselves in implementing methods designed to maintain and defend their positions of established power against its minority group. The U.S. government is in no way an exception to this rule, but rather to the contrary, it is a leader of implementing suppressive methods to defend its positions of established power against its minority group. In fact from the time that Africans were first enslaved and brought to America its government has always implemented methods designed to ensure that its White dominance be maintained.
During slavery, Blacks were not allowed to be educated, speak among themselves in their native languages, or to congregate in large groups except during their religious services which their masters often oversaw. Even after the abolishment of slavery, Jim Crow inequities continued White dominance through denying Blacks the right to vote and the brutal lynching of thousands of African Americans. After these blatant methods used to ensure the continuance of its White dominance had become morally unacceptable, the United States government secretly create and applied a more subtle, sophisticated, and socially acceptable method for ensuring the continuence of its white dominance and control.
Although today most African Americans do not experience racism the way their parents experienced it, they do, however, still experience White racism. White America's practices of economically exploiting and suppressing its Black population were never actually abandoned, but instead sophisticatedly reincarnated. White America's methods of institutional racism has been secretly modified into a more contemporary and stealthy design that provides a more socially acceptable means to covertly control and suppress the advancement of its African American population.
Although the formal covert Counterintelligence Program [COINTELPRO] deployed by the FBI directed against African Americans during the period of 1956-1971 was discontinued. However, in truth today there is a far more sophisticated and massive governmental scheme being implemented against the entire African American population. The U.S. government secretly implemented its largest ever covert operation against its Black population through a sophisticated media deployed psychosocial program of where in which African Americans are perpetually misled and manipulated by way of fraudulent negative media reports and false statistics that are designed to corrupt their sense of unity and lesson pressure for social change in their behalf thus facilitating a national consensual setting for their easier exploitation and suppression.
This modern system prevails by using misinformation as a tool to spread false beliefs and fears to influence the masses to ensure that its white dominance and control is maintained. The usage of information is rarely considered when discussing method of immitting white racism, however information is the single most important thing that moves the global economy, influences political regimes, and constructs human behavior. manipulative information management, social engineering, and traffic shaping are the evil crafts of the digital age. Information is the single most important thing that moves the world economy, influences political regimes, and constructs human behavior. Information is a sequence of bits and pieces that, when put together, defines meaningful thoughts. It is a tool of our trade and a powerful ally, but it can also be used as a weapon of mass destruction. Unlike the blatantly overt system of racism used in the past that resulted in African Americans unifying themselves against it, this modern system of racism is not easily recognized or comprehended by its Black victims. It is so subtle, pervasive, well-organized, complete, and proficient and yet most African Americans are totally unaware of this method of emitting white racism. Infact most African Americans will find it too shocking to contemplate.
Nevertheless, it is directly intertwined with the extensive challenges negatively impacting Black America today. It is so well disguised that although many of its Black victims may instinctively feel that there is something wrong, they are however unable to sufficiently conceptualize it so that they can unify and defend themselves against it. It is so sophisticated that even the very brightest of African Americans may have little, if any hope of extricating themselves from its detrimental effects.
This present stated of Black America is the results of such a detremental social engineering program. Moreover it is based upon the methods of propaganda techniques of renowned psychologist and United States propaganda specialist Dr. Edward Bernays. He was a nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the most skillful experts in mass manipulation. More than a century ago, Charles Darwin predicted in his book, "The Origin of Species" (1859) that "the evolutionary theory would one day provide a new foundation for the science of psychology." The truth in Darwin ’s words where realized when the science of psychology, through the methods of propaganda techniques, was codified and applied in a scientific manner by Dr. Edward Bernays early in the 20th century. He (Bernays) invented the modern day Madison Avenue advertising Agencies by using his Uncle Sigmund's knowledge of the human psyche to make people feel they needed whatever product was being advertised. Edward Bernays also invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
His most notorious feat was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. Bernays was convinced that this mass method of manipulation was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. For him it was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle, Sigmund Freud, had identified, people could be made happy, docile, angry, self hating or even confused.
During World War I, Bernays and journalist Walter Lippman were hired by then United States President, Woodrow Wilson, to participate in the Creel Commission, the mission of which was to sway popular opinion in favor of entering the war, on the side of Britain . The war propaganda campaign of Bernays and Lippman produced such an intense anti-German hysteria as to permanently impress America ’s governmental elites with the potential of large-scale propaganda to control public opinion. Edward Bernays advised US presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Eisenhower and served numerous corporations and business associations. This was the start of the mass media and governmental psychological manipulation programs which has come to covertly dominate today's world. One of Bernays biggest fans was Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, a fact about which Bernays bragged proudly. A common pattern used repeatedly
"Nevertheless, it is directly intertwined with the extensive challenges negatively impacting Black America today. It is so well disguised that although many of its Black victims may instinctively feel that there is something wrong, they are however unable to sufficiently conceptualize it so that they can unify and defend themselves against it. It is so sophisticated that even the very brightest of African Americans may have little, if any hope of extricating themselves from its detrimental effects."
As an Asian, I just have to laugh. How many times do you have to see a negative result before you realize you are wrong? Whites are not sitting around secretly fouling up the black man's chances with some plot. Whites live too boring a life to really think much about Africans, other than to pity them. They do wish Africans would shoot and enslave themselves less (like in most of Africa) and slaughter Whites less (like in the USA and Rhodesia and South Africa.), but mostly Whites sit around and worry about retirement, their children and taxes to think much about Africans. Any imagination they have centers around science and building devices and buildings. They picture a kind of "Star Trek" future in which all races contribute. Fools.
What you should really worry about is China buying up the resources of Africa and turning Africa into one huge Resource Zone. We will not come there with mealy mouthed attempts at "Salvation" and weak "hopes of bringing the African into "Civilization"". We will take the Cobalt, Iron, Gold, Diamonds, Uranium, Oil and other raw materials we need and leave you with holes in the ground.
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