Category: Gun Control

Chains of the Past. Shackles of the Present: How the Ghost of Slavery Continues to Haunt America

7/17/2016

Jay Arrington July 12, 2016 9:42 PM

Oath Keepers march in Ferguson, Mo 2014

https://reclaimourrepublic.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/video-oath-keepers-to-hold-march-through-ferguson-with-50-armed-black-protesters/

Can you imagine what present day America would be like if slavery never occurred in America, and the slaughter of the Indian notwithstanding? Set aside the fact that much of America would never have been built and many of the wealthy whites in this country would probably be piss poor - and think about the impact of slavery on the mentality of those involved. On the one hand you have those who devised the plan, implemented and carried out the plan and were willing to die - and in many cases did in a vain attempt to maintain a lifestyle of privilege and prosperity. On the other hand you have the victims.

Now before we get too high on the horse and begin to believe that because those folks lost that war they stopped fighting… remember one thing, they never have. Those folks continued to fight and although the strategy changed and the battlefield was expanded, the enemy and the spoils of war remained the same. Who’s the enemy? Anyone not wearing the confederate uniform. Who are the spoils of war? Blacks. White folks went right back to war; and their children, their children’s children and their children’s children, children continue to be loaded for bear because they never accepted defeat and they never got over losing the institution of slavery. And because white folks haven’t gotten over slavery neither have black folks.

Relatively speaking, with few exceptions, THE BELIEF THAT BLACKS ARE ANGRY ABOUT SLAVERY OF THE PAST IS A COMPLETE AND UTTER MYTH. No folks, blacks are not angry about slavery of the past. Blacks are angry about slavery of the present. As I said earlier, whites are the ones angry about slavery of the past. In spite of all the times you heard some white person say that blacks need to, “forget about slavery,” it’s not us, it’s them. The only reason blacks are angry is because blacks continue to be the targets of the very same practices of slavery past

Family annihilation
Voter suppression
Inferior education
Incarceration
Stereotyping
Profiling
Job discrimination
Murder

Whites want blacks to forget so that blacks won’t recognize that it is still going on, you know, “watch the birdie.”
Shall I go on? And surprisingly the anger doesn’t come so much from the fact that blacks continue to be the object of these atrocities. The anger comes from the fact that whites continue to be in denial about their complicity and evil intent. Nothing pisses someone off more than to have someone spit in their eye and then deny that they did. Even worse than spitting is the fact that whites pretend as though blacks can’t get over slavery, when as I said, it’s them.

Need more evidence?
Put aside all of what I mentioned earlier and consider the argument from this perspective. What, up until Trump’s “Make America great again” crap, had been the chief desire you heard from white voters each presidential election cycle since President Obama took office? Yup, you guessed it, “Take our country back.” Now, what I wonder is do they believe they lost when Obama became president. Could it be a sense of control? And what better way to reestablish control over what you believe you “OWN” then through the use of violence…reestablish and confirm your dominance as lord and master -read Massa.

Convinced yet? Shall I go on?
What is prison except for a modern day plantation? And much like slaves that were emancipated and had nowhere to go and chose to stay, most freed prisoners end up returning to prison simply because they have nowhere to go. Even worse, just like slaves they have no training, cannot get a job, cannot vote, which means they can’t feed themselves or their families so they return to what they know, crime/prison/Massa.

And finally folks, let’s talk about “OPEN CARRY.” Think way back to before Obama came into office. How much talk was there about “OPEN CARRY?” Apart from the fear of losing a country what the election of Obama did to whites in America was threefold, 1) it scared whites into thinking that blacks believed they (blacks) had carte’ blanc to kill whites (never our nature), not for slavery past but that we had finally seen the light about the present 2) reminded whites of their past as if they needed reminding and 3) made whites grab their guns as evidence that the war never ended.

Listen up folks, this ain’t “GHOSTBUSTERS,” and while you might be afraid of that ghost, black folks ain’t afraid’ of no ghost.

Jay Arrington is a staff writer for the Maryland Daily Examiner.
Contact Jay Arrington by EMAIL.

For information regarding the Maryland Daily Examiner, contact Reginald Kearney, Editor in Chief, by sending your email to:
reginald.kearney@marylanddailyexaminer.com

0 Comments

Rachel Dolezal: The Real Imitation of Life

6/18/2015

0 Comments

“I am—yet what I am, none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes;
They rise and vanish in oblivion's host,
Like shadows in love's frenzied stifled throes:
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tost.”From the John Clare poem “I Am”

So now everyone wants a piece of Rachel Dolezal’s hide - Some want to tan (pardon the pun) the white part and others want to tar and feather the other. Personally, I could care less. It is even being reported that Dolezal admits that her hair is a weave, duh! Really, what self-respecting black woman doesn’t have a weave of some type in her hair? I am at a lost as to why this is a story anyway. Don’t get me wrong I do understand the shock and the outrage to a degree but what I don’t understand is the surprise everyone seems to be experiencing.

Consider this if you will. White folks have been imitating blacks for years - our music, our style of dress, our dance, our art, our walk, and our talk. Hell, the first time a white person laid out in the sun in an attempt to secure a tan we should have known something was up. Now-a-days, the only things that blacks can say we took from whites culturally speaking is disrespect for parents, promiscuity, lack of morals and tattoos (stolen from the Aryan Brotherhood in prison) and we screwed all of these things up by going overboard. And here is where things get people’s panties and boxers all in a bunch.

You see folks, America is accustomed to whites imitating blacks for entertainment purposes, (can anyone say blackface, Eminem, or Vanilla Ice) because there is no inherent danger of overkill. Blacks on the other hand consistently go overboard when imitating whites. Unfortunately, we blacks have yet to figure out the dangers such as societal regression reaped upon us (blacks) by blazing that obstacle laden trail. Enter Rachel, Dolezal, and suddenly that tabooed glass ceiling has been shattered. Rachel dared to go where no white man or woman that we know of had gone before. Instead of imitating or instead of pretending to be blackish Rachel decided to be black and some of us are insulted.

Remember the weave I mentioned earlier, why do you think weaves exist? Because white folks have brainwashed black women (some) into thinking that unless they have long flowing hair like white women they (black women) are unacceptable and unattractive. Why the hell would anyone be mad about a white woman wearing a weave and subjecting herself to the aforementioned mental psychosis? Hell, if anything, take it as a compliment.

And besides if society accepts whatever Bruce Jenner’s name is claim that although he was born a man he is really a woman trapped in a man’s body, why not accept Rachel as being a black woman trapped in a white woman’s body however ridiculous the argument is or the speculation might be. Oh, but then again we are discussing race and race is not afforded the same “oh you poor thing you deserve to be happy” BS as whatever it takes or whatever someone does to achieve orgasm, can we talk.

In the movie “Watermelon Man,” Jeff Gerger, a middle-class white bigot awakens one day to find he is no longer white but black. Needless to say Gerger’s world is turned upside down. For one thing, Gerger, played by Godfrey Cambridge, is accused of robbery for running after a bus that as a white man he chased for years for exercise. Yet, chasing the bus as a black man, the police assume he is fleeing a crime scene, classic situation relevant even to this day.

In the film “Imitation of Life,” a young fair-skinned black girl named Sarah Jane played by Susan Kohner decides to pass as white to escape the oppressive policies of the era only to discover that passing is not a pass. When her white boyfriend discovers her deception, he beats Sarah Jane mercilessly. My point is that relatively speaking there is no fairytale happy ending for being black, pretending to be white and now we see also for pretending to be black, so what’s the big deal?

Take a read of that excerpt from the poem at the beginning of the article and marinate on its meaning. What does it say about how you feel about who you are, where you are, versus what you want to be and where you want to be.

There is one thing if nothing else - this entire affair begs me to contemplate how much this girl’s parents hate her to have outed her, and why.

Written by Jay Arrington, The Maryland Daily Examiner

For additional articles written by Jay Arrington, visit the Maryland Daily Examiner website. For information regarding the Maryland Daily Examiner, contact Reggie Kearney (Editor-in-Chief).

0 Comments

Gun Power: The Real Reason for America's Gun Obsession

4/22/2014

0 Comments

Close your eyes and imagine if you will, you were a Pilgrim setting foot onto the shores of an America occupied by Native Americans. Imagine also, you were a white man going over to Africa to capture people for the purpose of slavery. Can you see yourself in either of these situations? Alright, now that you can, imagine as a Pilgrim your intent was to steal as much land as possible from Native Americans but you didn’t own guns. How successful do you imagine that campaign might have been? Furthermore, how much success do you think you might have had as a white man in Africa trying to capture slaves without guns? Not much in either case wouldn't you agree?

You see, most Americans don’t own guns for protection from the future, they own guns for protection from the past. Allow me to expound. The other night I took part in a discussion on ‘Hot Topics Talk Radio’ with my good friend and host Toni Breedlove about “The Threat of the Black Man,” http://www.hottopicstalkradio.com/grammies-blog-spot.html and on http://ow.ly/vS9gS. During the discussion, the phenomena of white women locking their car doors when they saw a black man arose, and one caller remarked that he believed that behavior, (locking doors) was human nature. I immediately challenged that notion by pointing out that I never locked my doors when I saw a white woman approaching, adding that I believed that behavior was not a natural reaction but in fact was learned behavior. However, while reflecting on the topic later in the evening, I realized the behavior is not only learned behavior but that it also constitutes paranoia, yes, paranoia.

Wikipedia defines paranoia as, a thought process believed to be heavily influencedby anxiety or fearoften to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Need I say more? Anxiety or fear often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Anxiety, fear, delusion and irrationality, classic perceived tenets for “Stand Your Ground,” “Make My Day,” and “Shoot First,” state laws asserting expansive rights to self-defense. Why are these people anxious? Why are they fearful? What is the catalyst for their delusion and irrationality? Well I say guilt and the fear of losing power.

You see, Pilgrims could not have overpowered Native Americans, or stole their lands, and displaced a people without guns. White men could not have made slaves out of Africans without guns. Hell, for that matter white folks would not be in power without guns –their power lies in their guns. Guilt plays its role in making whites paranoid in the belief that all people of color despise them (whites) based on the way whites have treated people of color throughout history. Speaking of history, the aforementioned learned behavior of whites to lock cars doors, clutch purses, etc dates back centuries. I wrote an article some months ago,“Nigger Stealing”: How the myth of blacks and crime …, in which I talk about a scene from the movie “Lincoln.” In that scene a woman from Missouri, talks about the belief that slaves would steal chickens and her husband’s job if given their (slaves) freedom. The question that came to mind was how did slaves gain a reputation for stealing chickens, not to mention a white man’s job, in 1865?

That sentiment is par for the course. When faced with the prospect of losing power whites revert to one of three things, 1) demonization 2) criminalization and 3) assassination. Native Americans were portrayed as drunken devils (demonization) that would plunder and pillage cities and towns and rape white women. Blacks and in particular black men were and continue to be portrayed as unintelligent, lazy good-for-nothings who will steal, kill and rape white women (criminalization). The potential for the first two justify number three, assassination. Slaughtering of Indian Nations, ethnic cleansing of black towns, Rosewood, Fl in 1923, Tulsa, Ok (The Greenwood District) in 1921 etc, with the razing of Rosewood occurring as a result of false claims of rape by a white woman.

Not to mention Emmett Till another victim of the perceived fear of a black wanting a white woman, the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King and the countless and nameless number of strange fruit hanged from trees at lynching parties. No need to site statistics, because the only number that matters is one, the one that represents the loss that counts to a family. Fast-forward to present-day America and the aforementioned “Stand Your Ground” Make My Day” and “Shoot First” laws represent legal substitutions for assassinations and lynchings.

Make no mistake about it, all of this talk about 2nd Amendment rights and “Don’t Tread on Me,” is a load of crap. Mainstream America, or as it is popularly known, “Real America” is scared out of its wits just as the founders were of the British. Just as the pilgrims were of Native Americans, just as slave owners were afraid of Africans and slaves, and finally, just as they are afraid of all people of color in America today especially since we have our first African-American president but not because of a real threat. They (whites) are paranoid. I learned some time ago that when a person is left with no reasonable argument to defend his or her actions violence usually follows. If that is the case then I imagine we are left to assume that as it relates to White America past is prologue and that somewhere in the distance there is a chicken on his way home to roost.

~~~ Jay Arrington, Maryland Daily Examiner

- See more at: http://www.marylanddailyexaminer.com/gun-power-real-reason-americas-gun-obsession/#sthash.lPLWOtdU.dpuf

0 Comments

The Real Ape Story - Part III: Annie Oakley vs. Mother Theresa

3/6/2014

0 Comments

Who could have ever imagined the day when the argument for women to pack heat would be at the forefront of a national debate in the United States? Yeah, you heard it right. The gun control debate has turned into Mother Theresa vs. Annie Oakley. Last week in Newtown, Conn., one mother after another testified about losing her child in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre or about the guilt that haunts her because her child survived. The military-style AR-15 rifle the shooter used, one mother told a legislative panel, was “a death machine.” Meanwhile on that very same day in Washington, another woman, Gayle Trotter of the Independent Women’s Forum, testified just the opposite. She said an assault rifle in the hands of a mother defending her children and her home against violent intruders offers “peace of mind.” The AR-15, Trotter told a Senate panel, is “a defense weapon.”

Now, setting aside for a moment the validity, sound or not, for either argument, can any of us really imagine a mother welding an AR-15 assault rifle when she answers her front door- or better yet, having one set up in her living room like a piece of exercise equipment? Has America descended so far down the hellhole of violence that irrational thought is now the new normal? Powerful lobbies on both sides of the issue are turning to women as leading spokespeople and symbols. In television advertisements and op-ed articles, speeches at rallies and testimonials before legislators, both types are stoking emotion and fear in an attempt to sway public opinion. What is far worse however is, that lost in all of this fear mongering are the voices of those that really matter, the children. In the midst of this conflagration, the so-called adults on both sides of the issue are using the very bully tactics they de-cry as a major part of the problem that leads to these horrendous tragedies.

Those in favor of stricter firearm restrictions are employing mothers of shooting victims in their public relations push, calculating that when they speak out against gun violence they are hard to dismiss. Hundreds of thousands of moms who began organizing on Facebook after December’s Newtown shootings are staging rallies nationwide and lobbying lawmakers to pass President Obama’s gun-control proposals. The gun lobby, meanwhile, is using women to create a gentler image of the male-dominated industry and to frame its status-quo agenda as more about family safety and self-protection than about hunting and aggression. When CNN aired a town hall forum on gun violence last week, both of the pro-gun panelists were women. Manufacturers sell product lines of feminine firearms and accessories, retrofitting weapons to better accommodate women’s bodies and marketing them in pink and other bright colors. One Web site, Girl’s Guide to Guns, describes itself as “dedicated to women who dig fashion and fire power.”

“America’s women, they are leading the way,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a speech at the gun group’s convention last year. “Nearly 30 million American women now own guns. And they know what all of us have known for a long time: the more women who buy and own and shoot guns, the safer and the better off we’ll all be.” News flash Mr. LaPierre, arming women is not what this debate is about. It’s about disarming troubled teens, urban and suburban. It’s about our children and somehow I just cannot imagine Mother Theresa or Annie Oakley squaring off in the middle of the street armed to the teeth with an AR-15. Can you?

~~~ Jay Arrington (EMAIL)
Maryland Daily Examiner

- See more at: http://www.marylanddailyexaminer.com/the-real-ape-story-part-iii-annie-oakley-vs-mother-theresa/#sthash.BT7Cl8L0.dpuf

0 Comments

Jay Arrington

Jay Arrington is a featured staff writer and reporter for the Maryland Daily Examiner.

Jay's political commentary is cutting edge, and stands on truth and justice.

An activist and advocate for civil rights and a fair judicial system, Jay reports with the conviction of equality for all.

Jay Arrington's EMAIL

Chains of the Past. Shackles of the Present: How the Ghost of Slavery Continues to Haunt America

Rachel Dolezal: The Real Imitation of Life

Gun Power: The Real Reason for America's Gun Obsession

The Real Ape Story - Part III: Annie Oakley vs. Mother Theresa

Jay Arrington

Archives

Categories