There is no racial divide, no wait, there is, no, really, there is...
Tuesday Barack Obama gave a great speech on the racial divide that exists in our country. Wednesday, just for the fun of it, I tuned into Charlie Sykes on WTMJ (620 AM Milwaukee).This is a standpipe for Republican rhetoric here in Milwaukee and as I expected, Charlie was expounding on the speech given by Senator Obama. And trying very hard to discredit what as said. He kept harping on a point that was perhaps central to the speech; that there is a racial divide that exists in this country.
Mr. Sykes continued to insist that there was no such divide. That African Americans have advanced so much that one should not look for there to be a divide. After all, he reasoned, we have a viable African-American running for President of the United States. An African American caller insisted that there was such a divide that exists and Mr. Sykes said he was wrong for that reason.
OK. So let me say two things about this subject.
First, I believe that such a divide exists. I deeply know this to my core.
I grew up in an area of my town that has grown to be the most heavily populated by African Americans, drawn there- my theory here - by reasonable rents and low prices for houses. There was a freeway that was supposed to be built a few blocks from where I was living with my parents. The City of Milwaukee and the Federal Government condemned and tore down hundreds of houses that had been home to many families that kept the houses well maintained. This loss of economic income closed businesses and even a church that was in the area. I was there and that was my church. I lost many friends during that time; they had to move somewhere else. Some of them Black, some of them white. It did not matter.
Mr. Sykes is delusional as to believe that there is no racial divide.
Recently, a radio station known as WFMR, call letters that were associated with “Fine Arts Programming” AKA Classical and in it’s former life Classical with true Jazz with Ron Cozner, a true classic DJ in the Milwaukee area, changed formats to smooth Jazz.
Shortly after that one of the participants at my Senior Center where I work spouted off about she was tired how ‘Those People’ had come in an told people how to live and what music to live.
For the record; the station was managed by a company, and a manager who was by his name of Spanish decent, before and after the change over to the new format. I called and actually spoke with the manager myself when I was made aware of the change over and he explained to me that it was a matter of revenue. Classical does not bring in much revenue. I understand. During the last year of WFMR in Milwaukee, it was mostly sponsored by a local furniture refinishing business and several performance groups, one that I was part of among them. I’ve been part of a change over in radio before and actually lost a part-time- non-paid job due to one and I understand the process.
Yet, when confronted with these facts, this woman whom I work with choose to blame the African American community for it. In a very forceful tone said, “I’m tired of those people coming in and telling us what to do and taking away our things. They steal from you, they rob you and now they’ve gone and taken our radio station!”
I was wondering if I should look for a white hood with eye-holes for her to wear.
Secondly, a personal confession. If I see a group of young African-American men walking my way, I start shaking. I am fearful of what will happen. Will I be robbed? I honestly think this. I’m not proud of it. I’ve never been robbed or beaten by a group of African-American boys or men, but I’ve been done so by white boys as a youth. So, why the feeling I get. And, I’m not alone. I’ve heard other people, people involved in the community working as peace activists and in homeless shelters and even people who have been in a war zone say the same thing.
TV and Movies, urban Legend? Why?
Senator Obama chose to confront this issue head on. A true sign of leadership. President Bush proclaimed the other day that the economy is strong and we are doing well. I saw it while waiting in a tire store for a repair to be done, and two other people watching TV with me chuckled. “$4.00 gas and all is well.” Said one of them. Add to that, high unemployment, skyrocketing foreclosures and the demise of at least one large bank thus far and the economic picture is not rosy.
Rather than follow that lead and stick his head in the sand, Mr. Obama pointed to the issue and spoke in personal terms. He referred to his Grandmother and her experience. He spoke of his own experiences.
Mr. Sykes would like to fiddle while Rome Burns, but we have too much work to be done for that.
During his show he made reference to “People asking for reparations for things that happened over 100 years ago.” When speaking of slavery. He called it unreasonable and said that no one else is doing that.
Let me correct you Mr. Sykes. The Jewish people are asking, and have been asking for that for many, many years. They want their property that was taken by the Germans, they want payment for slave labor that was imported into other countries of those who were not put into death camps. Mr. Sykes, you were wrong.
If one group deserves it, don’t they both?
All of this of course was brought on by the discovery/release of video of Mr. Obama’s Minister espousing such things as how Senator Clinton will never know what it is like to be a poor black man. Well? How could she? She’s a white woman. She can never walk in his shoes, nor may I.
The Minister also spoke of how we brought on 9-11 by our middle east policy. True. Was that not the first stated reason given by Osama Bin Laden? We have favored Israel against Palestine and supplied it with weapons to use against the people of Palestine. Did we think that we could do that and not piss off someone?
Mr. Sykes continued to insist that there was no such divide. That African Americans have advanced so much that one should not look for there to be a divide. After all, he reasoned, we have a viable African-American running for President of the United States. An African American caller insisted that there was such a divide that exists and Mr. Sykes said he was wrong for that reason.
OK. So let me say two things about this subject.
First, I believe that such a divide exists. I deeply know this to my core.
I grew up in an area of my town that has grown to be the most heavily populated by African Americans, drawn there- my theory here - by reasonable rents and low prices for houses. There was a freeway that was supposed to be built a few blocks from where I was living with my parents. The City of Milwaukee and the Federal Government condemned and tore down hundreds of houses that had been home to many families that kept the houses well maintained. This loss of economic income closed businesses and even a church that was in the area. I was there and that was my church. I lost many friends during that time; they had to move somewhere else. Some of them Black, some of them white. It did not matter.
Mr. Sykes is delusional as to believe that there is no racial divide.
Recently, a radio station known as WFMR, call letters that were associated with “Fine Arts Programming” AKA Classical and in it’s former life Classical with true Jazz with Ron Cozner, a true classic DJ in the Milwaukee area, changed formats to smooth Jazz.
Shortly after that one of the participants at my Senior Center where I work spouted off about she was tired how ‘Those People’ had come in an told people how to live and what music to live.
For the record; the station was managed by a company, and a manager who was by his name of Spanish decent, before and after the change over to the new format. I called and actually spoke with the manager myself when I was made aware of the change over and he explained to me that it was a matter of revenue. Classical does not bring in much revenue. I understand. During the last year of WFMR in Milwaukee, it was mostly sponsored by a local furniture refinishing business and several performance groups, one that I was part of among them. I’ve been part of a change over in radio before and actually lost a part-time- non-paid job due to one and I understand the process.
Yet, when confronted with these facts, this woman whom I work with choose to blame the African American community for it. In a very forceful tone said, “I’m tired of those people coming in and telling us what to do and taking away our things. They steal from you, they rob you and now they’ve gone and taken our radio station!”
I was wondering if I should look for a white hood with eye-holes for her to wear.
Secondly, a personal confession. If I see a group of young African-American men walking my way, I start shaking. I am fearful of what will happen. Will I be robbed? I honestly think this. I’m not proud of it. I’ve never been robbed or beaten by a group of African-American boys or men, but I’ve been done so by white boys as a youth. So, why the feeling I get. And, I’m not alone. I’ve heard other people, people involved in the community working as peace activists and in homeless shelters and even people who have been in a war zone say the same thing.
TV and Movies, urban Legend? Why?
Senator Obama chose to confront this issue head on. A true sign of leadership. President Bush proclaimed the other day that the economy is strong and we are doing well. I saw it while waiting in a tire store for a repair to be done, and two other people watching TV with me chuckled. “$4.00 gas and all is well.” Said one of them. Add to that, high unemployment, skyrocketing foreclosures and the demise of at least one large bank thus far and the economic picture is not rosy.
Rather than follow that lead and stick his head in the sand, Mr. Obama pointed to the issue and spoke in personal terms. He referred to his Grandmother and her experience. He spoke of his own experiences.
Mr. Sykes would like to fiddle while Rome Burns, but we have too much work to be done for that.
During his show he made reference to “People asking for reparations for things that happened over 100 years ago.” When speaking of slavery. He called it unreasonable and said that no one else is doing that.
Let me correct you Mr. Sykes. The Jewish people are asking, and have been asking for that for many, many years. They want their property that was taken by the Germans, they want payment for slave labor that was imported into other countries of those who were not put into death camps. Mr. Sykes, you were wrong.
If one group deserves it, don’t they both?
All of this of course was brought on by the discovery/release of video of Mr. Obama’s Minister espousing such things as how Senator Clinton will never know what it is like to be a poor black man. Well? How could she? She’s a white woman. She can never walk in his shoes, nor may I.
The Minister also spoke of how we brought on 9-11 by our middle east policy. True. Was that not the first stated reason given by Osama Bin Laden? We have favored Israel against Palestine and supplied it with weapons to use against the people of Palestine. Did we think that we could do that and not piss off someone?
posted by Both Sides of My Brain at 11:26 AM
