Dr. Boyce Watkins
http://www.boycewatkins.com/
http://www.yourblackworld.com/
Greetings to the Your Black World Family,
In case you didn’t see it, Liz Trotta, a Fox News contributor, joked about how she hoped that Barack Obama would be assassinated. The video clip is at YourBlackWorld if you want to see it, and here is the text from the disturbing part of the conversation:
Trotta: "And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could."Host: "Talk about how you really feel."
What is most ironic about this statement is that the idea of doing harm to people of color is quite credible. I personally have been offered additional police protection due to the number of death threats that have come into my campus since our challenge to Bill O’Reilly. Barack Obama has had to take on additional secret service protection as a result of the number of death threats he has received.
As much as I have shown concern for the leadership abilities of President Bush in my books and articles, I never once hoped for his assassination. Such sentiment is clearly treasonous and evil. But this is the kind of language used to describe the man who may become the first black president. Bill O’Reilly also discussed having a “lynching party” against Michelle Obama and was not sanctioned for this language. That is what we’re up against.
This election is quite telling in the sense that it shows just how sick our country is with racism. The idea that a major news network can allow one of its analysts to a) confuse a presidential candidate’s name with one of the world’s most notorious terrorists (notice that she confused Obama’s name with Osama, and many of you have heard Barack’s middle name being used by those who oppose him), and b) joke about how she would like to see him assassinated along with Bin Laden, clearly explains where racism and evil continue to exist in our nation.
If you still stand up in support of Fox News after seeing this, then I truly feel sorry for you.
Our protest against Fox and Bill O’Reilly is picking up tremendous steam. Working together, we can hold this network accountable for its actions. If you have not already done so, I humbly ask that you continue emailing and calling the producers for The O’Reilly Factor. Also, be sure to send a complaint to the FCC over this horrific behavior. The contact information for the O’Reilly
Factor, the FCC and all of Fox News’ corporate sponsors can be found at this link.
We can’t let the “Axis of Ignorance” distort the facts and steal this election. The summer of 2008 is going to be as challenging and critical as the summer of 1968 when it comes to fighting for equality. I encourage all Americans to remember: WE ARE NOT POWERLESS…..the time to vote is not only in November. The time to vote is NOW, by emailing, calling and writing corporate sponsors of Fox News and the FCC to tell them that this anti-American behavior is not going to be tolerated.
I honestly don’t care if you support Clinton, Obama or McCain. I only care that we fight for what is right. All are invited to this struggle against social terrorism.
" An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bless you,
Dr. Boyce Watkins
http://www.yourblackworld.com/
http://www.boycewatkins.com/
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Robbing poor blacks of the only thing of value they have
By John Eidson
Their living conditions could only be described as tragic. Of the seven adults who shared the badly dilapidated rental unit in a rundown area of southwest Atlanta, not one held a job. They eked out a dead-end existence for themselves and the two children who lived with them by pooling government benefits, including an $852 monthly Section 8 housing subsidy. When I described their heartbreaking living conditions to a liberal friend, she replied in all seriousness, “That’s what you conservatives want, isn’t it?”
My brother in law is also a liberal. Last August, I forwarded to him an email I received earlier in the year about the interracial double murders that had just occurred in Knoxville. Using Wikipedia, he found that the press had since backed off initial reports that the white victims had been horribly mutilated by the black defendants. Without checking to see if I was aware that the reports had changed (I wasn’t), and apparently convinced I was a willing participant in a sick attempt to promote racial animosity, he sent a terse reply that I should “stay off the neo-Klan blogs”.
Here is where I stand on race and poverty:
* For the last twenty years, I worked as an executive recruiter in the graphic arts industry. When I saw that managerial positions at most printing plants were filled almost exclusively by whites, I actively sought minority candidates to present to my clients. Some of the highly qualified individuals I found jobs for were the first African-Americans to ever hold positions of responsibility at their new employers.
* A few years ago, I risked my personal safety to chase down a robber who stole the purse of an elderly black woman in a crime-ridden area of downtown Atlanta. When I returned the purse to its tearful owner, she told me it contained her just-cashed Social Security check, all the money she had to her name. It never entered my mind to not help her because she was black and poor.
* I do not have an iota of hostility towards black people, poor people, or anyone else. Although I was not enlightened enough at the time to take part in the civil rights movement, I recognized long ago that Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of our country’s greatest heroes. In short, I have nothing but best wishes for a people subjected to the terrible injustices of slavery and segregation, just as I do for all people who have yet to lift themselves from poverty.
The absurd insinuations about me from a friend of forty years and a man I have been related to for an equal time were not intended as personal attacks. They were merely a profound reflection of the twisted way two people I have known for decades have been indoctrinated to view conservatives: when it comes to race and poverty, conservatives are downright evil, even when they are long-time friends or close relatives.
My friend and my brother-in-law are not alone. For the last four decades, the Democratic Party has conducted a campaign to stereotype conservatives as mean-spirited racists who couldn’t care less about the suffering of others. Legions of rank-and-file liberals have been brainwashed into believing that their political opposites are morally-defective bigots who have a sadistic desire to starve children, kick old people out of nursing homes and disenfranchise minorities of their hard-won rights. Such charges are patently false.
Bumper stickers that express open contempt for the charitable instincts of conservatives are common in many blue-state areas of the country: “Better A Bleeding Heart Than No Heart At All”, “The Moral High Ground Is Built With Compassion”, The Road To Hell Is Paved With Republicans, “Republicans Are People, Too – Mean, Greedy, Selfish People”.
Given the realities of charitable giving by party affiliation – as a group, conservatives are demonstrably more generous than liberals -- it’s beyond ironic that so many liberals cast their ballots with an unfounded air of moral superiority. The right is routinely portrayed as greedy and uncaring, yet liberals do exactly the same as conservatives when it comes to personal charity: give a small fraction of what they have to the poor, while selfishly hoarding the lion’s share for themselves.
Neither liberals nor conservatives give until it hurts, but not because no one cares about human suffering. People of all political stripes have simply observed that continually giving money to people whose hands are always up does little to help them turn their lives around. That makes it hard to understand why anyone would support giving them an endless stream of government money.
Over the last four decades, the burden of caring for the poor has been politically shifted from the private sector to government. In doing so, we have created a weakened society where millions of citizens who ought to be working instead rely on public assistance. By giving the poor benefits they have not earned, the federal government has become a giant enabler that doles out just enough to extinguish the willingness of many recipients to make it on their own. As Bill Cosby accurately observed, welfare kills the human spirit.
Liberals are due full credit for being the first to recognize that something should be done about poverty. No conservative can argue that the war on poverty initiated by LBJ and a Democratic Congress was not well-intended. But, after forty years of massive welfare programs, the number of destitute citizens in the world’s greatest country remains appallingly high, particularly in urban areas. Our misguided compassion has contributed to the virtual disintegration of the black family, with generations of innocent children born into lives of hopelessness.
The tragic plight of the nine African-Americans in the Section 8 duplex is all the evidence I need that on-going welfare is a cruel hoax to inflict on anyone but the severely disabled. Burgeoning welfare programs may attract votes, but they also cause grievous harm to millions of the very people they are intended to help. Open-border advocates claim that illegal immigrants do the work Americans won’t do. Many of the unemployed poor don’t do such work because welfare provides a far less strenuous alternative.
The way out of poverty is self-reliance, a lifestyle that welfare does little to encourage. From food stamps and Section 8 housing to WIC payments and Medicaid, government programs for the poor discourage work, reward idleness and make it easy for children to be thoughtlessly born into desperate conditions. Some of the chronically poor are where they are due to circumstances beyond their control. Many more have simply forfeited the chance to succeed in the greatest land of opportunity on earth, thanks in no small part to the initiative-destroying assistance of an enabling government.
No, we cannot declare cold turkey on the welfare-addicted, but we should do far more to actively encourage them in the other direction, not for our benefit, but for theirs. For too long, our national answer has effectively been to consign them to a dead-end existence while the rest of us live in comfort as far from the projects as we can get. In the process, we are robbing them of the only thing of value they have -- the chance for a better life.
Their living conditions could only be described as tragic. Of the seven adults who shared the badly dilapidated rental unit in a rundown area of southwest Atlanta, not one held a job. They eked out a dead-end existence for themselves and the two children who lived with them by pooling government benefits, including an $852 monthly Section 8 housing subsidy. When I described their heartbreaking living conditions to a liberal friend, she replied in all seriousness, “That’s what you conservatives want, isn’t it?”
My brother in law is also a liberal. Last August, I forwarded to him an email I received earlier in the year about the interracial double murders that had just occurred in Knoxville. Using Wikipedia, he found that the press had since backed off initial reports that the white victims had been horribly mutilated by the black defendants. Without checking to see if I was aware that the reports had changed (I wasn’t), and apparently convinced I was a willing participant in a sick attempt to promote racial animosity, he sent a terse reply that I should “stay off the neo-Klan blogs”.
Here is where I stand on race and poverty:
* For the last twenty years, I worked as an executive recruiter in the graphic arts industry. When I saw that managerial positions at most printing plants were filled almost exclusively by whites, I actively sought minority candidates to present to my clients. Some of the highly qualified individuals I found jobs for were the first African-Americans to ever hold positions of responsibility at their new employers.
* A few years ago, I risked my personal safety to chase down a robber who stole the purse of an elderly black woman in a crime-ridden area of downtown Atlanta. When I returned the purse to its tearful owner, she told me it contained her just-cashed Social Security check, all the money she had to her name. It never entered my mind to not help her because she was black and poor.
* I do not have an iota of hostility towards black people, poor people, or anyone else. Although I was not enlightened enough at the time to take part in the civil rights movement, I recognized long ago that Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of our country’s greatest heroes. In short, I have nothing but best wishes for a people subjected to the terrible injustices of slavery and segregation, just as I do for all people who have yet to lift themselves from poverty.
The absurd insinuations about me from a friend of forty years and a man I have been related to for an equal time were not intended as personal attacks. They were merely a profound reflection of the twisted way two people I have known for decades have been indoctrinated to view conservatives: when it comes to race and poverty, conservatives are downright evil, even when they are long-time friends or close relatives.
My friend and my brother-in-law are not alone. For the last four decades, the Democratic Party has conducted a campaign to stereotype conservatives as mean-spirited racists who couldn’t care less about the suffering of others. Legions of rank-and-file liberals have been brainwashed into believing that their political opposites are morally-defective bigots who have a sadistic desire to starve children, kick old people out of nursing homes and disenfranchise minorities of their hard-won rights. Such charges are patently false.
Bumper stickers that express open contempt for the charitable instincts of conservatives are common in many blue-state areas of the country: “Better A Bleeding Heart Than No Heart At All”, “The Moral High Ground Is Built With Compassion”, The Road To Hell Is Paved With Republicans, “Republicans Are People, Too – Mean, Greedy, Selfish People”.
Given the realities of charitable giving by party affiliation – as a group, conservatives are demonstrably more generous than liberals -- it’s beyond ironic that so many liberals cast their ballots with an unfounded air of moral superiority. The right is routinely portrayed as greedy and uncaring, yet liberals do exactly the same as conservatives when it comes to personal charity: give a small fraction of what they have to the poor, while selfishly hoarding the lion’s share for themselves.
Neither liberals nor conservatives give until it hurts, but not because no one cares about human suffering. People of all political stripes have simply observed that continually giving money to people whose hands are always up does little to help them turn their lives around. That makes it hard to understand why anyone would support giving them an endless stream of government money.
Over the last four decades, the burden of caring for the poor has been politically shifted from the private sector to government. In doing so, we have created a weakened society where millions of citizens who ought to be working instead rely on public assistance. By giving the poor benefits they have not earned, the federal government has become a giant enabler that doles out just enough to extinguish the willingness of many recipients to make it on their own. As Bill Cosby accurately observed, welfare kills the human spirit.
Liberals are due full credit for being the first to recognize that something should be done about poverty. No conservative can argue that the war on poverty initiated by LBJ and a Democratic Congress was not well-intended. But, after forty years of massive welfare programs, the number of destitute citizens in the world’s greatest country remains appallingly high, particularly in urban areas. Our misguided compassion has contributed to the virtual disintegration of the black family, with generations of innocent children born into lives of hopelessness.
The tragic plight of the nine African-Americans in the Section 8 duplex is all the evidence I need that on-going welfare is a cruel hoax to inflict on anyone but the severely disabled. Burgeoning welfare programs may attract votes, but they also cause grievous harm to millions of the very people they are intended to help. Open-border advocates claim that illegal immigrants do the work Americans won’t do. Many of the unemployed poor don’t do such work because welfare provides a far less strenuous alternative.
The way out of poverty is self-reliance, a lifestyle that welfare does little to encourage. From food stamps and Section 8 housing to WIC payments and Medicaid, government programs for the poor discourage work, reward idleness and make it easy for children to be thoughtlessly born into desperate conditions. Some of the chronically poor are where they are due to circumstances beyond their control. Many more have simply forfeited the chance to succeed in the greatest land of opportunity on earth, thanks in no small part to the initiative-destroying assistance of an enabling government.
No, we cannot declare cold turkey on the welfare-addicted, but we should do far more to actively encourage them in the other direction, not for our benefit, but for theirs. For too long, our national answer has effectively been to consign them to a dead-end existence while the rest of us live in comfort as far from the projects as we can get. In the process, we are robbing them of the only thing of value they have -- the chance for a better life.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Black Life, Black History in the eyes of a black senior citizen
To The Editor:
As a 78 year old American of African descent, I feel compelled to respond to all this 'much ado about nothing' when it comes to the statement that Michelle Obama made about the fact that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud to be an American.
The country needs to hear this from the Black perspective.
Long before I was born, my grandfather Joseph Burleson, owned a considerable amount of land in oil rich
Blacks had no rights in the 1800's. The prevailing law at that time was he who held the deed owned the land. Do you think that is something that I am PROUD OF? Right now I should be living off the oil and gas royalties.
In 1934 when my dad drove us to
In 1938 when my oldest sister went to enroll in
When in 1943 my parents attempted to buy the 2 flat at 5338 South Kenwood, where we had lived since 1933, in Hyde Park, Chicago, IL we were told that we could not buy it because there was a restrictive covenant that said that the property was never to be sold to Negroes.' Do you think I am PROUD OF THAT?
In 1950 when I graduated from college, I was unable to get a job because I was considered 'overqualified.' the code word for they would not hire me because of my race. All of the want ads called for Japanese Americans or Neisis ( the word given to Japanese Americans at that time). Do you think that was something that I should have been PROUD OF?
I understood that
My cousin's barbershop was bombed in
Now we get to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of the Obama family. Rev. Wright like so many religious zealots overstates many things, that many of his members do not agree with. To suggest that Senator Obama should leave the church of his choice is not only a double standard, but it is absurd. Would any of the talking heads who are so alarmed by Rev. Wright's thoughts and speeches suggest that Catholics should abandon their faith or denounce and reject the Pope because so many priests have molested children? These children were exploited and taken advantage of and they had no choice to even know they could resist, reject and denounce. To me the situations are parallel, except for the fact that the priests behavior is a physical violation of the innocence of children who are marred for life; and the priests behavior is a crime.
Rev. Wright's speeches are just words, that one can listen to or not, the members have a choice. Should Governor Romney denounce and reject the Mormon Church because some of their members practice polygamy?
As Senator Obama has previously stated, we have entered the silly season.
Barack Obama is an adult, and most importantly, he is an exceptionally intelligent adult. Like most of us adults, fortunately, we do not accept all we hear or see. If we did, the world would be more amoral, debased and perverted than the world of today is.
I see all these 'so called' pondering's an attempt to marginalize the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. I cannot truly call this racism because some ignorant Blacks have also spoken disparagingly about him.
I accept this as the darker side of mankind who because of their own inadequacies, they project their deficiencies on others. Barack Obama is a very rare individual, the likes of whom the world seldom sees. Like most geniuses, they are often misunderstood. They are objects of envy and jealousy. They are suspect because they soar above the average man who does not have the intellectual ability to understand the greatness of special people. They are also targets to be pulled down to the level of the mediocre who cannot stand to see an individual with deep convictions and high standards.
We have not seen a phenomena like Barack Obama in many years and many generations. Like Ghandi, like Jesus, like Einstein, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., like Mother Theresa, genetically, intellectually and spiritually, these people offer the world so much, but they are often maligned and misunderstood.
Barack Obama is a Christian in the true sense of the word. A true Christian loves his fellow man unconditionally. A true Christian wants the best and tries to bring out the best in his fellow man. A true Christian wants to unite and bring the world together in peace and harmony. This is what Senator Obama stands for; but, unfortunately, he has had to get off point to answer these false charges, innuendoes, and just plain lies.
We are in the presence of an angel unaware in Senator Barack Obama and this country needs him, more than he needs us. He is the only person atthis time in history who can restore respect for
Like, Michelle Obama, after living in this country all of my 78 years, loving my country and not understanding why my country has not loved me, I now for the first time in my adult life feel PROUD OF MY COUNTRY because I sense a maturing, a recognition of talent and character and not color, and a field of candidates aspiring to lead this nation coming from very diverse backgrounds of gender, religious beliefs, national origin, ethnicity, age and experiences.
This to me is the HOPE that
Now I truly believe, YES WE CAN!
Sarah D.
Director Health Information Services
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