The following is Blog post number twenty-four and is part of the ongoing series Racial Reconciliation in America, in honor of Black History Month; it is entitled: How White Folk Offend Black Folk - PART FOUR - You Can Not Piss In My Ear And Tell Me It's Raining.

RACIAL RECONCILIATION

How White Folk Offend Black Folk

PART FOUR - You Can Not Piss In My Ear And Tell Me It's Raining.

I know that for some this is an interesting title for a preacher to use. It comes out of my upbringing. My being around old Black men  and working with them in the fields; listening attentively to their conversations. We will get to the meaning of the phrase shortly. Now, beloved, Western Civilization from a historical context, has created a burden that is borne by White human beings today, indeed in some ways one might measure that White privilege is a burden. Certainly one, who achieves and is White, could indeed be judged by nonwhites as not deserving of the success that one has been fortunate to achieve. Just as some Blacks, who have achieved are often considered as unqualified, because they may have received opportunities because of Affirmative Action.

It does not mean that one is necessarily qualified, simply, because they are of White privilege. Now White people of today have had nothing, at all, to do with the methods for accomplishing this initial: conquest, control, greed and dominance of resources that developed Western Civilization! However, they may be the perpetuation of it! Their progenitors have, absolutely, been involved in its creation!

And yet, with or without their accepted agreement, all White human beings of today, who so choose to, may in these latter days, benefit from these methods of control and dominance. Without choice, but by the nature of their birth: the burden, like the benefits of a White human being, is yet borne, like it or not! I contend, this burden and or the benefits, depending on one’s outlook, have to do with and are not limited to historical events; these include the following:

·       On the stage of world history a White human being has brought forth a degree of violence and brutality unequaled by any race of people. This is represented by and not limited to the following:

o 1) The Catholic Crusades against the Muslim world, although centuries ago, the affects remain unto this very day,

o  2) The brutal slavery of the African peoples by the European people: of Portugal, Spain and England, beginning in 1485, in the African Kingdom of Benin; then, spreading throughout the European Continent was first supported by the Catholic Church of Portugal. It then moved to all portions of the Americas, including the U.S. Colonies in 1618 until 1864. 

o 3) The conquest and genocide of the Native Peoples of America, and the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia, are a truly dark spot and blemish!

o  4) The oppression of the Black human being under Post-Civil War Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow Laws of the Southern and Midwestern states of the U.S. Through these acts, of the State and Local governance, and through the legal terrorist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, thousands unjustly suffered.

o     5) The Napoleonic Wars.

o     6) World War I.

o     7) World War II and the Holocaust of the Jews.

o     8) The Apartied of the South African people.

o     9) The continued subordination of the Black, Brown and Native American people, through inferior schools, healthcare; unequal justice, and inferior work, that for most men equals self-worth.

·  The elimination of the bond of ancestry of the Black human being of the United States, which has had an enduring negative impact on this racial group unto this very day. Most Black folk in America have limited to no knowledge of their progenitors prior to the 1900’s.

           This would suggest limited knowledge beyond the third or fourth generations, if they were birthed into the generation that is sixty years of age, or above. Beloved, this was an intended act with an intended consequence of destabilizing this racial group. This will be discussed later and in greater detail in our commentary on the Black Family.

           Now, there are the unintended consequences associated with having this destabilized racial group still living in America with the many problems attendant to this reality.

·  The facilitation, of a continued “Mark of Oppression,” that is held within the psyche of many Black folk, resulting from Slavery. This “Mark” is transferred by the White-American who believed the mass communications strategies of White superiority and or supremacy as something real, This is proven by held positions of historical leadership within all Seven Establishments that affect the soul of every human being in America.

           It is not by talent, intellect, the best fit or superior moral character that the ownership of positions of authority and power exists with such vastness; rather, it is by birth that such positions are so held. The “Mark of Oppression,” as it relates to the uniquely American born Black human being, is often characterized by, though it is not limited to, the following:

o   1) The historical event of oppression that is contained within the conscience, conscious mind and memory of the oppressed whether the oppression is either current or past.

o    2) A diminished nature of the self whether it be concept, value, and worth to their community, or to the broader society. This is to a large degree a result of the desire to assimilate into the European culture, having had their own stolen and blotted from memory.

o  3) The affect of the sense of guilt, fear and resentment within the conscience and subconscious mind of those considered as the oppressor either current or past, whether or not it is agreed to exist.

o    4) A worldview that is more often than not racially based.

o  5) A sense of entrapment within a so-called underclass that is not contained within the expression “mainstream” of American society,

o  6) A reality of poverty entrapment within a low quality existence whether it be related to healthcare, employment, food, clothing, income, housing, transportation, education, political influence, or power. Living the reality of lacking access to The Resource Bundle.

A reality of oppression produced by centuries of inequality embedded in the historical record of racism against Black folk in America is an offense. Realities of oppression that include, having to perform in a rigged game. What is this rigged game? The rigged game is: 1) an economy that is biased by the majority race which is White folk; against the minority race that is Black folk, 2) an economy in which individual success is affected by a good education, 3) an education system historically biased against the Black race, 4) a financial system with capital availability that is biased against the Black race, 5) an economy that is driven by assets and historically all manner of hard assets have been biased against the Black race. The generational pass through of assets is a White reality not a reality of Black folk in America. Indeed the recent financial collapse because of it's real estate centric nature, drastically and disproportionately eliminated the asset gains of Black folk.

The historical racial bias against Black folk in all aspects of access to The Resource Bundle in America has resulted in real oppression and not something that is imagined. The control over all aspects of communications and social indoctrination has over centuries developed a “whiners” perception of Black folk. This is how the terminology of “piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining” came to be. The phrase is about an historically orchestrated communications strategy employed by the White majority race. It is in many ways how White folk offend Black folk. It is to lie about the nature and condition of Black folk and believe that Black folk should and therefore do believe the lie. The bad conditions of Black folk being the fault only of Black folk and caused by Black sloth is a lie that many, particularly older White folk choose to believe.

What we have here is the theory of creative opposition through a rigged control of access to The Resource Bundle. While mass communicating that there is a fairness for all in the access to every resource: White folk, who have historically controlled all mass communications; their technologies, and access - have created an enduring image legacy of Black folk. Again, the historical image is of a people who are lazy slothful and lacking in intellectual prowess. This is a gross offense by White folk against Black folk.

The Black failure in acquiring resources has been mass communicated as the "fault" of the Black individual. The real cause of the failure has more often than not been the discrimination against Black folk by White folk who have always controlled the access to all of the resources in America. The success in mass communicating this slothful "whiners" image of the Black-American is masterful; if for no other reason than history makes clear, that it was the Black slave whose sweat and physicality actually built this nation. Not was his labor stolen, but the labor of his offspring after Slavery was stolen. Hence no ancestral asset pass through. And one must not forget the labor of the Chinese and Black folk together that was used to build our nation’s railroad system.

The following is the message from the Control Norm, which is represented by the majority White America. Communicated everyday to young Black men in America, is this message, you must manage to: 1) stay alive, 2) not get locked up in jail or in a federal prison, unlike so many of your brethren, 3) make a living without an available job, 4) get a good base education in a school system that does not offer one near you, 5) get a loan and start a business with bad credit, 6) develop good credit with no job, 7) stay well with no healthcare, 8) never have sexual intercourse, 9) provide for the child that comes if and when you do have sexual intercourse, and 10) even if an underground job is the only job available to take care of the child, do not work in the underground economy to do so. That's right even though that is the only economy where you live don't work in it.

The mass communicated message in other words is: Young Black man you achieve in a competitive self-reliant and “individual” focused society, without a good base education and no fair access to capital. This is the message to the young Black man in America. Use your wits and stay out of poverty.

Though I contend that Capitalism is the best economic system to deal with poverty, the American Capitalistic system contains extraordinary blockers to success. These blockers are put there by a society lead by White folk who have installed racially based constraints into the system. These constraints negatively affect Black folk and they are intended to do so, and this is an offense.

The mass communicated message that White folk give to Black folk in America is an offense. It is a message of “believe me when I piss in your ear and tell you that it is raining.” To a very large degree communications generally, is how White folk offend Black folk.