21st century slaves are fed the empty calories of a placebo-styled " hope " : minus any demand for literacy; avoidance of trouble with the criminal justice system ( the basis of my Capt. Black presentations ) or prioritization upon building businesses and other institutions to attend to our material and other needs.
By Nadra Enzi
Feed anyone of any color a steady diet of low expectations, WIC, TANF, job programs where actual work is optional and music video mores and you too can have a host of 21st Century slaves ( "habots " ) from whom billions can be made, ranging from the compulsive consumption to the incarceration orientation of these habots. My term "habots" refers to the robotic behavior demonstrated by people programmed to do the same limiting thing endlessly with little thought toward self-development or even variety.
There are plenty of White habots, just in case someone thinks I'm beating up on my poor defenseless people. Far from it, I'm beating up on the dumbing down of Black selfhood so many have embraced as a new civic gospel.
21st century slavery in modern America exists alongside advances in access to the national mainstream. While not an advocate of blind immersion into a majority culture with empty pockets ( and skulls in numerous cases ), I do advocate mastering knowledge skills that will make you marketable and able to understand the business and legal jargon dancing around you at all times.
21st century slaves are fed the empty calories of a placebo-styled " hope " : minus any demand for literacy; avoidance of trouble with the criminal justice system ( the basis of my Capt. Black presentations ) or prioritization upon building businesses and other institutions to attend to our material and other needs. Consequently, even the most progressive supporters of civil rights from other communities must contend with inert millions unmoved by good intentions.
While 21st Century slavery is a linear descendant of its historic predecessor, it is up to Black people and Black people alone to interrupt this self-destructive pattern which we now create on auto-pilot from generations hence. Black History Month observances absent serious discussion about the slavish habots in our midst are empty rituals unworthy of investing time nor money into perpetuating.
We can continue shifting focus on the feel-good news of who the 44th President of the United States is at our peril because millions of 21st century slaves make his job harder in addition to lowering the success ratio in our national community.
Arguments as to the ultimate origin of this appalling condition all lead, I think, to one inescapable conclusion: Black folks may not have put themselves in this mess, but this mess is ours to clean up!!The care and feeding of 21st Century slaves, i.e habots is a nightmare beyond the worst imagined by the best horror or science fiction author.Facing legions of flesh-eating zombies or angry aliens would be almost merciful compared to what productive Black folks of all persuasions face on a daily basis.
~Nadra Enzi aka Capt. Black is a writer and promotes avoiding trouble with the criminal justice system as living via inspiration instead of incarceration. NADRACAPTBLACK@YMAIL.COM
19 comments:
Your artical sounds as if you have been reading to much of Walter Williams>
And your "wild" reaction suggest maybe you have been reading to much of Noam Chomsky
Not too much Walter Williams, jusr too much of this up close and personal in my inner city neighborhood on a daily basis.
Bro, I agree 100% with this post. Blacks have been nothing more than a vote for democrats---Obama being the exception. We blindly follow and worship the democratic party as if they really care about the hood---Obama being the exception. Although I do believe Obama is sincere about not only wanting to help blacks, but all Americans, he is not the answer to uplifting our race. We have to uplift ourselves and demand more of each other.
What were the accomplishments of George Herbert Walker Bush and George W Bush with regards to The African-American community. I'll let you take Katrina out of the discussion.
What was John McCain and Sarah Palin's outreach to the African-American community?
Don't take Katrina out of the Equation, the Black Democratic Mayor of N.O. and the White Democratic Governor of Louisiana had absolutely nothing to do with dropping the ball. Don’t forget that we are 50 States. You mentioned it, I responded……
George W paved the way for acceptance of a BLACK presidential candidate………
George W paved the way for acceptance of a BLACK president……… by appointing not 1 but 2 African Americans to one of the highest most visible offices in the land. SECTATARY OF STATE. This sounds a lot like give them fish and you feed for a day, teach how to fish and you feed them for a life time, I heard that somewhere.
Everybody remembers the free cheese,
sbm
If you think GW not having access to a TV screen for three days was an appropriate Federal response to Katrina, then I hope you are selected to manage some GOP candidate's campaign. (Fail)
Dennis Haysbert had a much as GW in paving the way for Obama by playing a Black President on "24". I'd also credit James Earl Jones in "The Man" and Morgan Freeman in "Deep Impact".
The role GW may have played was by demolishing the concept that the White guy was always the best choice for President. So on second thought you are correct, GW did pave the way. Only not in the way you think.
Like I told you in a previous blog, GWB should be hung by the B*lls right next to the local democratic authorities that also failed to have access to TV Screens for 3 days. It was nice and dry in Baton Rouge and I think they had power.
It was the economy stupid and we all know how qualified for the Job our president is, I don't think they sat around saying…. I guess we’ll try and appoint several tax cheats and a New Mexico gangsta and maybe no one will find out……. I can se it know..…. Pelosi can you put together a bill so full of pork the Jews or Muslims won’t vote for it and can you change the name from pork to ham and stick some in there to. Do you believe all these issues were a secret and no one knew about them? Says a lot about the man in charge.
What was the highest giovernment post held by an African American before G.W.B? I'll fill in the first part token __________
People are holding onto money and not spending. Credit is limited. The stimulus is geared to put money into the economy. Most tax cuts will be saved, not stimulating the economy. What is your solution to the flagging economy?
Japan 1990-1999 the lost Decade. They did the same thing it didn't work...... lets learn from history
CUT TAXES immediately and you will see immediate results. Businesses invests capitol people put it away for a rainy day.....instead of 33% tax cut in bill make it 66%
Not off the hook...
What was the highest government post held by an African American before G.W.B?
If people are saving their tax cuts, who is buying products being made by US businesses to stimulate the economy?
I thought you had GW hanging by his scrotal tissue for Katrina. I already complimented Dennis Haysbert for his inspiring depiction of a powerful African-American President.
The increase of Gas above $4 a gallon was the same as smacking Americans with a $500.00 a month tax increase. Now that Gas is below $2.00 folks are spending the extra cash on other items. Give working Americans a tax cut they can see immediately on there pay checks and they will spend it, give businesses a tax break and they will invest it. Gov't spending only leads waste.
How does spending money 1- 2 -3 years from now fix the issues at hand? We’re getting hoodwinked again and President Obama is taking a page out of G.W.B’s play book. Oh…we’re suppose to have change?
Can’t answer the question….Disappointed
Hanging right next to scrotum tissue of Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr. and labia majora tissue of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
sbm
you talk in circles
..............Businesses invests capitol people put it away for a rainy day
..............Now that Gas is below $2.00 folks are spending the extra cash on other items.
The economy is stagnant because people are holding onto money, not spending. You argue that people are saving and spending simultaneously.
The unemployment rate is increasing because no one is buying their products. It would be foolish for private citizens to spend rather than save in the current economy.
The CBO analyzed the effect of the Stimulus blll and projects growth in employment. (The link is to a summary letter the hard data is available on the CBO website)
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9987/Gregg_Year-by-Year_Stimulus.pdf
Do you have similar projections for the effects of your tax cut proposal? The House GOP plan to alter AMT resulted in an increased tax rate according to the CBO.
Regarding Blacks and the GOP, this article may be helpful.
On Abe’s 200th birthday, it seems everyone wants a piece of the Great Emancipator. Except the Republicans, that is, who have wiled away the legacy of their one-time standard-bearer.
Today is the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln and rarely has Honest Abe been in such demand.
Our nation's first African-American president—also a self-made lawyer from Illinois—rarely loses an opportunity to compare himself to the Great Emancipator. There are new documentaries like Looking for Lincoln on PBS and best-selling biographies like Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals that inform our political debates. Lincoln looms large because his wisdom, integrity, and humility are always in short supply among politicians.
But for the Republican Party this anniversary is at best bittersweet. Lincoln was, of course, the first Republican president—and the GOP has called itself with justifiable pride "the Party of Lincoln" ever since. And, yes, just weeks ago they elected the first African-American chairman of their party, marking a considerable step towards reclaiming their roots.
Since the civil rights era there have been only three African-American Republicans elected to Congress, while there have been 93 Democrats.
But the Party of Lincoln has really become the Party of Reagan in instinct and self-conception. It is ideologically conservative and traditionalist—whereas Lincoln's Republican Party was the progressive party of its day. It finds philosophical structure in federalism and states' rights, concepts that comforted southern Democrats of the John C. Calhoun variety. And perhaps not coincidentally, the party's strongest support now comes from the states of the former Confederacy.
But the most obvious sign that the GOP might have lost Lincoln is the diversity gap between the two parties. Think back to the difference between the crowds at Chicago’s Grant Park on election night and those clustered at the Biltmore in Arizona. It's a contrast that grows more stark when seen through the eyes of history.
Of the 23 African-Americans who served in Congress before 1900, every single one was a Republican. They would not have dreamed of being anything but members of the Party of Lincoln.
But since the civil rights era there have been only three African-American Republicans elected to Congress—Massachusetts' Ed Brooke, Connecticut's Gary Franks and Oklahoma's JC Watts—while there have been 93 Democrats.
The Party of Lincoln has almost entirely lost the allegiance of the African-American community to the point where the historical reasons for this alliance seem dusty and irrelevant. There have been historic appointments of African-American Republicans to high office—Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condi Rice—but to date the electoral aspirations of African-American Republicans have been basically D.O.A. because the party is not seen as representing their community.
"They can't appeal to African Americans and at the same time oppose everything that's in the interest of African-Americans," Sen. Ed Brooke told me. "When you talk about equality and justice, you can't just preach, you've got to act. That old statement of Abraham Lincoln's—that government should do for people only what they cannot do for themselves—depends on knowing that there are some people who cannot do for themselves. It's got to be a party with a head and a heart."
Michael Steele's election as RNC Chairman at least recognizes the problem and offers the opportunity to heal the breach and regain credibility as the Party of Lincoln again. It's not only in the GOP's long-term electoral interest, it's in America's interest, because it is not healthy for our republic to have race be part of a partisan divide.
John P. Avlon is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Avlon also served as Director of Speechwriting and Deputy Director of Policy for Rudy Giuliani's Presidential Campaign. Previously, he was a columnist for the New York Sun and served as Chief Speechwriter and Deputy Communications Director for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He worked on Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign.
The GOP needs to hear the words of Ed Brooke.
Perspective is everything, by the literal definition if Liberal and conservative once Obama is done socializing and liberalizing this country I will want things to change (liberal) and you will want them not to change (conservative)
Again everybody remembers the free cheese, everyone forgets the jobs created by Reagan tax policies that helped pay for my and your education. Not a check in the mail but a fishing pole and instructions on how to use it.
Respond to:
1-How does spending money 1- 2 -3 years from now fix the issues at hand?
2-What was the highest government post held by an African American before G.W.B?
3- Why is Obama using the same fear tactics that got us into Iraq? Hope over fear?
sbm
I gave you the link to the CBO data that addresses job growth. Read the CBO letter, then go the the CBO website to analyze the data for yourself. Reading IS fundamental.
Read the article I posted that addresses Powell and Rice. their appointments do not counter that fact that the GOP is seen as hostile to the interests of African-Americans. McCain/Palin got 4% of the African-American vote. 15% of African-American identify themselves as Republican. The Presidential vote suggests that Black republicans either stayed home or voted for Obama.
regarding fear, even the economy of Dubai is crashing. China will continue to buy US bonds because "There is no other option". You think there isn't a financial crisis? What planet are you on?
Discussions with you are proving to me that you simply cannot have a dialog with a Republican. Obama found that out in trying to reach a consensus on the stimulus bill.
You demand responses to questions already addressed. Yet, you do not feel it necessary to respond to a request for data supporting your tax cut plan. You did not address the question about what outreach McCain/Palin made to the African-American community.
You need to do some responding yourself. Currently Obama has a 67-70% approval rating for actions on the stimulus. Congress has a 37% approval rate. Republicans are at 31%.
Start reading material provided regarding the CBO. Provide data to back up your soundbite "tax cut" opinion stating that people will not save instead of spend. Respond to my questions or don't expect to a get response to yours.
This is becoming a waste of my time.
Here's some help regarding tax cuts
According to a January 2008 CBO report, "Options for Responding to Short-Term Economic Weakness," "a reduction in the corporate tax rate" is "not a particularly cost-effective method of stimulating business spending" because "[i]ncreasing the after-tax income of businesses typically does not create an incentive for them to spend more on labor or to produce more, because production depends on the ability to sell output." Indeed, Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com who was reportedly a McCain campaign economic adviser, included in 2008 written congressional testimony a table stating that every dollar spent through a "Cut in [the] Corporate Tax Rate" produces a GDP increase of only $0.30 -- the third least-efficient provision of the 13 he studied.
In the table included with his testimony, Zandi lists only "Accelerated Depreciation" and "Make Bush Income Tax Cuts Permanent" as having a lower "Fiscal Economic Bank for the Buck" than a "Cut in Corporate Tax Rate":
http://www.house.gov/smbiz/hearings/hearing-07-24-08-stimulus/Zandi.pdf
"I was dreaming when i wrote this so sue me if it goes astray"
You keep wasting your time but I guess you didn't read this part
The macroeconomic impacts of any economic stimulus program are very uncertain.
Economic theories differ in their predictions about the effectiveness of stimulus.
Furthermore, large fiscal stimulus is rarely attempted, so it is difficult to distinguish
among alternative estimates of how large the macroeconomic effects would be. For
those reasons, some economists remain skeptical that there would be any significant
effects, while others expect very large ones.
Basically your CBO report says "we are guessing and anything can happen"
Look to Japan
I T D I D N O T W O R K
“INDEED, THE 100 BILLION IN REBATE CHECKS WILL LARGELY PAY FOR APPROX 100 BILLION …..Gasolina
What did I say about gas? Put on your reading glasses put down the bottle and read carefully
“Go to lower income households struggling to pay for SOARING GASOLINA AND FOOD PRICES”
Guess what all this has come down let it work its way threw economy
Payroll TAX holiday 1.29 immediate tax cut
Across the board tax cut 1.03
INFRASTRUCTUR SPENDING results several years down the road. So when you calculate the time value of money you will find that a 1.29 today will yield a much bigger bank for the buck than a 1.59 5 years from now (finance 101)
The big bangs didn’t work for 10 years in Japan and will not work in US.
Out of 13 4 proven tax cut remedies are not third from the bottom.
IF YOU CHERRY PICK YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING
Tax cuts won’t work but they’ve always worked before, explain the paradox of lowering taxes increases tax revenue?
#1 Obama is still in the HONEYMOON stage of his presidency and his approval rating is dropping. If he keeps using GWB tactics I expect he'll be in the teens before very long.
#2 Congress has been in the shitter for the last 2.5 years guess why?
#3 another one bites the dust.... 3 down how any more to go?
#4 Why is Obama hiding the ball on the stimulus package?
This is starting to feel like Venezuela WHAT THE FU%^ IS GOING ON?
#5 HOW the hell do you measure jobs saved? Obama is full of shit on this one.
I never said there isn't a global melt down. Today reports indict lower than expected jobless claims and higher sales did you forget to read that one?
Tax cuts got us out of Jimmies mess and it will get us out of the FNMA Freddie MACK inspired and democratically instigated disaster.
What deregulation did GWB sign during his term? What regulation did he sign?
whatever you might think it is never a waste of time.
sbm
Finally you have provided some data. I don't mind intellectual discourse but you have to do some of the heavy lifting providing data rather than quoting GOP talking points. Thanks for the effort. You are finally focused.
What happened to the deficit during Reagonomics?
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