America's Anti-Bullying Craze, Racist Bully Cops, and A Respectful Warning About Today's White Protesters

There is something profoundly absurd about the American media being saturated with an anti-bullying campaign, and zero-tolerance anti-bullying policies being pushed in America's school systems, while America's police continue their time-honored tradition of selectively bullying Black Americans with impunity--all too often, bullying Black Americans to death.

Left: Eric Garner, an unarmed American Black Man, a husband, and father of six, is choked to death by White police officer Daniel Pantaleo on Thursday, July 17, 2014, in Staten Island, New York. 

 

Yet, as absurd as it may seem, this anti-bullying craze may have actually inspired, and empowered, some heretofore timid, and indifferent, White People to finally take a stand for something and put their voices, and bodies, with the voices, and bodies, of the Black Americans who are taking a stand for Freedom, Liberty and Justice. For this, we are grateful with certain reservations.

The Trayvon Martin case catalyzed a creative, multiracial, national protest response that morphed into a temporary Pop Culture phenomenon. The White voices, and bodies, that we saw in the Trayvon Martin protests seemed to evaporate once the movement lost its luster as a Pop Culture sensation. Many White Americans, and others, thought that the Trayvon Martin shooting was an offensive aberration and not the reflection of a historical, systemic, and structural, norm that continues to plague Black America.

This is no mere speculation on my part; I actually observed this misperception of American race relations in the (educated) young White Americans with whom I worked on President Obama's 2012 Re-Election Campaign.

These young, White, Progressive Post-Racialists were genuinely shocked by the racial hatred, and vulgar bigotry, that was openly expressed by many White Conservative Republicans during Barack Obama's 2012 campaign.

Most of these young, idealistic Whites had never seen, heard, or read, anything like the racial hatred that was leveled at President Obama during his 2012 Re-Election Campaign.

This frightened, and disturbed, the economically privileged Obama campaign workers very deeply because they had so thoroughly denied the existence of racism in America, and had been so sheltered from the racial ugliness of other types of White People, that they were utterly surprised to see racial hatred for President Obama openly expressed in public forums.  So much for their Post-Racial American fantasy.

As educated, and intelligent, as these young graduate, and professional, student campaign volunteers were, not one of them seemed to perceive the systemic, and structural, nature of racism in America.  There is no excuse for this because not only were they scholars who should have been keeping themselves abreast of the discourse that emerged during the Obama Presidency they also had access to Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope, which should have given them some insight into the structural nature of racial oppression, because therein Barack Obama clearly communicates that racially, and ethnically, selective structural oppression is a problem in America.  He emphasizes the role that American political leaders can play in effecting systemic, and structural,  change to address unjust racial disparities.  Then-Senator Obama writes:

"[We] should consider spending a lot more of our political capital convincing America to make
investments needed to ensure that all children perform at grade level and graduate from high school--a goal that, if met, would do more than affirmative action to help those black and Latino children who need it the most" (The Audacity of Hope, p.246).

  As scholars, and presumed agents of "Change," these young Obama For America campaigners should have considered Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow.  Michelle Alexander, a longtime Civil Rights advocate and litigator, and Law Professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, dismisses out-of-hand the myth of a Post-Racial America with a scathing, well-documented, expose of the devastating impact of Mass Incarceration on Black America. 

The consensus among these alarmed campaign workers was that they sincerely believed that Barack Obama's Presidency meant that "Racism in America was over."  Yet, at no time, to my knowledge, has Barack Obama ever suggested any such thing.  President Obama knows that a Post-Racial America does not, and cannot, exist because there are simply too few White People who have the courage, honesty, and sense of goodwill towards Black Americans, to even TALK about racial injustice in America ...let alone do anything to correct the problem.

Michelle Alexander quotes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society.  The comfortable, the entrenched, the privileged cannot continue to tremble at the prospect of change in the status quo" (The New Jim Crow, p. 246).

The average White American has his proverbial head up his behind on the issue of race.  Whites who deny that racial injustice exists in America do so to avoid the reality that they themselves are probably racist and that not only do they benefit from racism but they are utterly dependent on the benefits, and advantages, that they derive from the system that collectively privileges the vast majority of White Americans at the expense of Black Americans. The implications of White racial entitlement for the cherished twin myths of White innocence, and American Meritocracy, are devastating.  For Conservative Whites, the reality that they are the recipients of unjust racial entitlements is simply too shameful to admit precisely  because their self-righteous attack on Black America's alleged budget-busting racial entitlements is the (official) cornerstone of their ideological hatred of Black Americans.  So, instead of admitting that they have an institutionalized false advantage over Black Americans, they just bitterly accuse Black Americans of blaming innocent White People for Black America's own "failure" as a Race.   On the other hand, Liberal Whites  usually just take the path of least resistance until the next racial controversy occurs; then they take time out from business-as-usual to beat their breasts with White guilt and point the self-righteous finger at the Conservatives. The following statement by anti-racist author, and lecturer, Tim Wise, a leader in Critical Race Theory, exemplifies the problem of White American denial of racial injustice:

"After all, acknowledging unfairness then calls decent people forth to correct those injustices. And since most persons are at their core, decent folks, the need to ignore evidence of injustice is powerful: To do otherwise would force whites to either push for change (which they would perceive as against their interests) or live consciously as hypocrites who speak of freedom and opportunity but perpetuate a system of inequality."


Tim Wise gives a clear analysis of White American Racism, White privilege, and White denial, in his books and lectures.  His book Between Barack and A Hard Place  is a timely addition to any thinking person's library.

   

Now, in the wake of the protests that have erupted in response to the highly-publicized shooting death of unarmed Black American teenager Michael Brown by White policeman Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014, we have arisen a fresh batch of Caucasian sympathizers who have been recently indoctrinated, by a national Anti-Bullying media campaign, to have pity for others who have been bullied.

Of course, when you think about it, who in America is more bullied than Black Americans? That answer was always a no-brainer.

"STOP BULLYING BLACK AMERICANS!"

After over fifty years of racial denial, White People are again joining Black American protest movements, some with 1960s Civil Rights newsreel fantasies in their heads.  What they must now realize is that their participation in protests with Black Americans does not entitle them to a touchy-feely, Kumbaya-singing, relationship with us.  We have done that already; and it left us with some fond memories, and some touching images, but very little structural change.

                      AUGUST 2014

Black Americans are not just protesting police brutality, and the militarization of America's police; we are taking a principle stand against systemic, and structural, racial oppression. We are fighting for Dignity, Security, and Opportunity, for the sake of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice.

Our national protest response to the shooting of Michael Brown is more than another sensational Pop Culture protest experience.  It is a signal event in History. It is a spiritual, political, and historical, breakthrough that is finally laying bare to the World, in real-time, the horrifying potential of the racist police state reality in which most Black Americans live, whether they realize it or not. The Liberty of all Americans is bound up in the Liberty of Black America.  For Generations, White Americans have tended to ignore, or mock, or complain about, our calls for systemic, and structural, change.  Many have scoffed at our cries for protection from police abuse of power. Now, White People must face the reality of the militarization of America's police.  Black Americans have always lived in a police state reality.   Traditionally, White Americans have been just fine with America being a police state, as long as they were on the winning side of the police state. 

It is unfortunate that the multitudes of White People still need controversies like that which is unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, to remind them that the Liberty of all Americans is bound up in the Liberty of Black Americans.  Whites should not need for Blacks to take to the streets before they take a stand against racial injustice. If enough White People normally stood up for Truth, Justice, and Righteousness, in their own spheres of influence, Black Americans would have little, or no, reason to protest.

The disappointing experience of history has shown us that when we succumb to the sentimental seduction of singing Kumbaya with Caucasian activists, and when we prioritize emotionally bonding with our White allies over holding Whites critically accountable for confronting the structural oppression of Black America, it causes our movement for Dignity, Security, and Opportunity, to lose both the power, and the platform, to address the deeper systemic issues that continue to plague us. Consider the following:

 

 
When the  smoke cleared, and the marching, and singing stopped, we were left with some very inspiring  images of "Blaaack aaannd White Tooo-geh-eh-thurrr"; but, these inspiring images, and those touchy-feely inter-racial experiences, did not translate into structural change.  They, therefore, did not produce Justice. 

These images, as inspiring as they may be, are too often used as propaganda to invalidate, in the public imagination, the critical, committed, voices that continue to call for structural change after the marching, and singing, has stopped and things have settled into the new-and-improved version of "business-as-usual." 

A deeply troubling, and humbling, aspect of "business-as-usual" is the extreme disparity of wealth among Black Americans. Consider this graphic (right). We must address this sensitive issue creatively, and constructively, if we are to effect real, and lasting, change.  Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that if we,  Black Americans, as a power group, marshalled our economic resources, we would be about the eighth richest nation in the world.   I will address this topic in a future blog; in the meantime, ponder this question: "What are the top five problems that we would be able to solve on our own if Black America redistributed its own wealth?"

Black Americans are not just taking a stand against police brutality, and against the structural brutality of America's institutions.  We are fighting for Dignity, Security, and Opportunity; as, such, we are now critiquing our own institutions, and re-evaluating our strategies, all over America. White Activists must critique the structural oppression of White institutions without expecting a hug, and a pat on the back, from Black Americans.  Racially selective institutionalized brutality is a historical problem that affects every area of Black American life. Police brutality guns us down and beats us down; structural, and institutionalized, racism holds us down and keeps us down. 

White People who come around looking for a touchy-feely inter-racial experience, or talking about "Revolution," are highly suspect. It would behoove us to keep the former at arms length and to avoid the latter altogether.  Yes, we are grateful for the White People who, in good faith, join us when we rise up in protest for Justice; but, the truest sign that a White Person is associating with us in good faith is his or her long-term commitment to solving the problem of systemic, and structural, racial injustice. 

The events in Ferguson, Missouri, have forced America to engage in a critical public conversation about racial injustice and police brutality.  Social Media is providing a forum in which more and more White Americans, for better and for worse, feel brave enough to voice what they dared not speak openly before. Despite the encouraging, and sympathetic, talk, and social media postings, we must remember that dramatic influxes of sympathetic White People talking about race, and joining in marches, has yet to produce structural change; as a result, Black Americans still live in the shadow of racial injustice.  And solving the problem of racial injustice is the point.  When you encounter Caucasian allies who have no interest in critically confronting America's systemic, and structural, racial injustice, and who are not committed to using their power, privilege, and resources, to effectively address, and permanently solve, the problem of institutionalized brutality, beware; for they are not true allies.  They are false allies; and, it is foolish to emotionally bond with a false ally. So, be civil; and, be cordial. Be grateful; but, be clear.  And, know that we have the best ally of them all on our side; for GOD IS WITH US.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Galatians 5:1

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'Owthu Hadar, Heru Bar-Chanan, Ha Melek (Melek Heru) is the Prince and Priest of The Holy Zawadi Nation: 'A Loving, Caring, Sharing, People, Striving To Be A Light Unto The World.'

Melek Heru  was born in Anchorage, Alaska, in August of 1964, christened Horace Columbus Neal II, and raised in Columbus, Ohio.  He is a paternal descendant of the Prophet Nat Turner (1800-1831) and his wife Cherry. He is also the Great-Grandson of Professor John Roland McCormick, Esq. (1878-1959) of Washington, D. C. and his wife Bettie Cash McCormick. He is the eldest son the late Horace C. Neal (1931-2009), a career Military Man and Entrepreneur, and Bettye "Mama" Neal, a Professional Storyteller.

Melek Heru is the author of Go Down, Moses! A Hebrew Mystery: Volume 1; and, he is the host of The Kinsman, an hour-long, weekly broadcast that airs on Wednesdays at 6pm EST on Talktainmentradio.com.