To me, there's nothing more repulsive than conservative or even centrist White people getting weepy about Martin Luther King, Jr. I never again want to see or hear how "transformative" Martin Luther King, Jr., was for any White person. I have "White" skin and I reckon I got all of the privileges that redound to "White" skin. I refuse to make up an emotional response, especially on my blog.
I think the radio host Mike Malloy is absolutely right. The best thing I can do is shut the fuck up about my "feelings" about Martin Luther King, Jr., or to tell stories about how "important he was to me." The worst thing I can do, however, is not analyze the historical data and try to understand some of this.
All I can have is an intellectual, historical and analytical response. In some ways I don't care for this holiday -- though it's deserved as an honor to an important historical figure -- because it trivalizes and reduces the man and it stops a discussion that should be provoked. Everybody gets their pages of dialogue to read from a script but the issues are no longer confronted. So Dr. King becomes with the passage of time like Muhammad Ali or Hank Aaron or even Josephine Baker, Black figures of the past -- reviled by Whites in their time -- as both a sword and a shield for Whites to use against Blacks in the USA today: "Where does Mayweather get off...Barry Bonds is a gutless loser; he's no Hank Aaron...Sister Souljah? Why back in my day we had political Black women singers like Josephine Baker..." So, because guys like Rangel and Conyers are nuts-and-bolts pols, effective and powerful and Black, but not orators, and not carbon-copies of a Disney-fied Dr. King, they're dismissed.
Unfortunately, because the media in the 1960s, with help from the principals and their seconds created a kind of duel between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, kind of a Frederick Douglass v George Washington Carver paradigm for the 1960s. As a result, King being the more inclusive of the two, has been an easy figure for the White establisment to turn into a cozy teddy bear. Not true at all. Read "The Letters..." some day. And please, please remember what was going on in Dr. King's life at the time of his assassination. [Remember about Malcolm X, too, but I'll get back to that.] Civil rights legislation had been signed into law. Dr. King was, of course, never going to give up that fight but he had just begun to take up the various reasons the Vietnam War was destestable. And he was in Memphis, if I'm not mistaken, in support of the bus drivers' strike. No, not from my "feeling" or my "identification" with Dr. King because I have none and don't because I'm White, Dr. King at the time of his death was hardly practicing Obama's ersatz "post-racial politics," and less still the example of Obama's ersatz "getting past the partisan politics of yesterday." Dr. King was getting down and dirty as a Democrat with good, old-fashioned European-White-Male labor and class politics. In other words, he was not just talking about the need for integration, he was putting his ass on the line for poor Whites as well as Blacks because he also had a class consciousness.
There's plenty of loose talk going around that the "Establishment" knew that preventing Civil Rights legislation from getting enacted into law was a lost cause and that de jure and much de facto segregation was also lost. The loose talk suggests that Dr. King's entreaties to poor Southern Whites to join the cause and to answer their entreaties to join theirs was what troubled Uncle Sammy. And maybe that's why Dr. King didn't die of natural causes. And maybe James Earl Ray was bass-fishing in Georgia on that day. It could all be tinfoilhat stuff, but I find the eventual rapproachment -- no, closeness -- of the King and Ray families rather odd and striking. And neither the Ray nor King families have been shy about voicing their skepticism. I also find it rather odd that in the six months or so prior to Malcolm X's assassination, he had largely abandoned his aggressive anti-White posture, and had also come to a broader, class-based view of things after a second or third look at some of the works of Marx and Marcuse.
So, please everybody read the full transcript or watch the whole video. I'm being totally fair here and providing a link through the article of a Right-Wing, Pro-Obama, Tissue Of Lies reporter, Kathryn Q. Seelye. Obama hardly condemns the Reagan Administration. He condemns "the excesses of the 60s and 70s." That would include Dr. King and Malcolm X's naughtiness, too, no? Would Obama's fulsome (to use his word) praise for Republican ideas also include America being "ready" for the transformative politics of genocide for no good reason in Latin America? No big deal. Raping nuns. Slaughtering 100,000s. Overturning governments. Assassinating an archbishop. What a putz this Obama is. I mean really. I hated Reagan but I can at least point to one or two good things he and his administration did. I can't point two a single good thing Obama has done other than provide me with a lot of laughs and plenty of blog fodder. That Robert Shaw line The Sting, "You're not only a cheat, you're a gutless cheat" was meant for Obama. One of these days, HRC and the Dog will be watching that fucking movie on DVD, eating some popcorn and they'll look at each other and say "it's time."
And no, Tissue-woman Seelye's arguments don't hold water either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/us/politics/21web-seelye.html?ref=politics
By the way, I'm giving myself 3 bells for coming up with the Bob Roberts thing yesterday. That's exactly who Obama is and if he ain't Bob Roberts, he's Bob Forehead. I know some wise-ass will write in that Tim Robbins and Mark Alan Stamaty are supporting Obama or some bullshit like that but I don't care. I have no idea who Robbins and Stamaty support. Nor do I care. Obama reminds me of the silly political characters they created.
Kelso's Nuts love you
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17 comments:
You do an excellent job dissecting, and analyzing the debates. If not for you, I wouldn't know shit about them.
Also, I'm working on that post for you about "Regrets/non-regrets", but it may not be up until Sunday.
Thanks, Buddy. That means a lot to me because I do study them pretty hard. There's been some (legitimate) beef that these aren't real debates; they're road shows for the corporate candidates. Yes, a formal debate with College rules would be good as would an unfetterd House Of Commons debate. The results, at least on the Democratic side, would be the same, though. Clinton and Kucinich would run 1-2 in points but then be slammed by the media for doing so. Obama would get disqualified from a couple of these if they were using college rules and he just doesn't have the chops for a House Of Commons type free-form debate. Yet, Obama would be declared the winner every time.
So, I kind of like the fake debates because to get any info at all, I'm forced to watch them closely.
Don't worry about the meme thing. You'll do it when you get around to it.
i think these "name holidays" are ultimately meant for kids, meaning, when you have an official MLK Day, or Presidents' Day, or whatever, it's an opportunity to do special things to commemorate, and, more importantly, learn about, the the people who impacted our society.
for adults, it's always just about getting a day off from work. i remember when we commemorated Washington and Lincolns' birthdays on the actual day they were born (Feb. 22 and 14, i believe). now they are glommed together for a 4-day weekend, for the adults, of course.
That makes sense. Unfortunately, so did your comment about the word "bitch" on the other post. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind and I've gotten angrier and angrier and let it all out in today's post.
MLK Monday my older son and I went to the YMCA in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where we are members. WE pumped iron and after pumping iron he joined a pick-up game of basketball.
The weightroom attracts a racially mixed crowd. Basketball is more black/white. Since Monday was a holiday, the place was busier than usual.
However, I did not hear one person, not one single person of any race, creed or color, mention MLK on Monday.
There was no unspoken feeling in the weightroom that people were pumping iron for MLK. Not one kid on the basketball court with my son mentioned sinking a shot for MLK. They ran, shot, dribbled and passed while spouting the usual court stuff. That's it.
Not a solemn or stately moment all day.
You wrote:
"So Dr. King becomes with the passage of time like Muhammad Ali or Hank Aaron or even Josephine Baker, Black figures of the past -- reviled by Whites in their time..."
Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali was respected and praised by whites through his entire career, with the exception of the point when he chose to act like a complete fool, swallowing the bullshit of the Black Muslims, when he refused induction into the Army.
Sadly, Ali became a tool of the Black Muslims. It was through his association with this vile organization and his subsequent refusal to honor his obligation as an American citizen that brought opprobrium and antipathy his way. His race had nothing to do with his temporary decline in status. But mainly his popularity dipped because he refused to serve, and like Bill Clinton, created the need for the drafting of someone else.
As for Aaron, I suppose there were a few racist critics whose animus surfaced when he approached Ruth's record. But, like most extremists, there were not many of them. And of those there were, I doubt any of them were playing professional baseball.
Baseball had already elevated Hispanics and Jews and blacks into the pantheon by the time Aaron was surpassing Ruth.
Josephine Baker was in a different class. I don't think it's reasonable to list her with sports legends.
I'm 46. I've been a sports fan my whole life. I heard what I heard about Ali and Aaron. Christ, I reading something similar from you right now about Ali.
And Aaron, my God, it made the Bonds business seem tame. My favorite one was by Dick Young, the fascist News columnist who accused Dusty Baker, Ralph Garr and Aaron of being a Black Panther sleeper cell with the Braves.
Josephine Baker was a popular chanteuse who could not abide the politics and racism of the USA so she expatriated to France. My parents told me exactly what people said about her. And I was comparing her to contemporary black female singers who draw shit.
Sorry to break it to you, you don't know everything there is to know in the world.
NOW FUCKING GET TO WORK ON THE 5 REGRETS AND 5 NON-REGRETS I TAGGED YOU WITH AND BE A PART OF THIS INSTEAD OF AN ANTAGONIST. And stop being such a contrary dick. I actually respect you in a way.
Kelso, I must have missed the tagging business. Your preceding post is the first I've seen of it.
I know about Josephine Baker and her music. That wasn't my point. She falls into a different stratum of American life, by way of time, place and talent.
As you mentioned, Dick Young had his conspiracy-theory thoughts. But as I mentioned, Aaron's nay-sayers, critics and haters were not fellow baseball players.
There was a story about Tiger Woods circulating yesterday or the day before. Written by a Sports Illustrated writer, I think. Farrel somebody-or-other. A moron of extraordinary magnitude. I'd like to know his race. I'm guessing he's black, and he did a hell of a hatchet job on Woods.
Anyway, as mentioned, Ali was a hero to most white fight fans. He might have gotten under the skin of some people with his doggerel and outspokenness. His draft dodging did. But draft dodging transcended race and seems to have become a qualifying characteristic for Democratic presidential candidates in the 1990s.
Draft issues notwithstanding, Ali was a sportswriter's dream, turning news-jockeys into celebrities. I'm sure Howard Cosell's ghost makes the flowers bloom in Ali's house. Till Ali arrived, I think black fighters kept their traps shut. Was there ever a published interview with Sonny Liston? It's doubtful he had the power of speech. Maybe Floyd Patterson offered a word or two. Perhaps a few thoughts from Joe Louis, who served in the Army without protest.
No_Sz:
I tagged you, Anita, Fairlane and Spartacus to come up with 5 regreta and 5 non-regrets. Birth to present day.
A couple more points:
You wrote:
"And maybe James Earl Ray was bass-fishing in Georgia on that day...And neither the Ray nor King families have been shy about voicing their skepticism."
The Ray's are crazy and ready to exploit any weakness they see, and the King's are part of the usual conspiracy-theorist mindset that has replaced reality in much of the black world.
James Earl Ray shot MLK. Period. Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, no matter what Oliver Stone wants his fans to believe. And 19 muslim hijackers piloted four jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, no matter what the screwballs claim.
Meanwhile, Malcolm X was, shall we say, not too bright, but at least he read a few books and tried to understand them. But failed. His perfidy, his apostasy led to the usual demise of black leaders. Any day now, following the croaking of Louis Farrakhan, Chicago residents near NOI headquarters will need to wear bulletproof vests while the next leader shoots his way to the top.
Moreover, I believe Alex Haley wrote the Autobiography of Mal X. Since it was determined that much of Roots was fictional, it's tough to think the Story of X was any less so. By the way, it was boring, boring to the point that I tossed it in the can before finishing it.
Now you're starting to make some sense, No_slappz.
I never said Aaron's contemporary players were against him. The Fellowship Of Christian Athletes was. But that's about it. I was talking about the press and fans who split about 65/35 against.
We have differences of opinion about the NOI and as you call it "draft dodging". Me, I call it not wanting to die to line the pocket of your enemy at home. I got a boy, too. He's 8 and I'm pretty sure this same crusade bullshit will be going on when he's 18 and I assure you if there's any whisper of a draft, I'm burying him so deep behind the turretted walls of the mansion of some Jewish narco-traficante in Colombia that Uncle Sam wouldn't dare try to make him go. I just love him too much. My son or the vanity and greed of the party I oppose in my former country? Sorry, it's not a close decision. Lose my son for President Condoleeza Rice's amusement? No sale.
Howard Cosell and Jim Bouton were Ali's ONLY big-time media supporters. As a Jew who grew up in the South, Cosell got it. Bouton is just a good guy.
Sonny Liston like Tyson had an IQ well below normal; I know that. He was hardly known for his eloquence. There have been some fairly bright heavyweights of recent years: Smith, M Spinks, Holyfield and Lewis. Although as far as I know of that group only Holyfield has been active poltically. I've heard that Mayweather's intelligent. I know Duran is and his daughter is one of the best announcers I've ever heard although you'd have to understand Spanish, of course. I had the good fortune to sit next to an emerging Middleweight from the Bronx named Andre Berto at Forrest/Quartey who seemed very knowledgable about a lot of stuff.
Now, you're starting to go off the rails again.
So, please...cut the shit and lick the knife. And get to work on those regrets and non-regrets.
No_slappz:
I don't know why I like you. I really don't. You come by all these lefty blogs and cop a shit attitude, never once admitting that you might not know something about whatever subject, pissing the blog proprietors and all the other commenters off, coming on with this obnoxious cut-and-paste riff...Are you really FAIRLANE playing a fucking joke on us?
I think you might be. Because I know he's contrary and I like him a lot. And nobody could seriously believe the shit you do and continue to pester people like you do who writes as well as you do.
Fuck it, FAIRLANE. 'Fess up. I know this whole No-slappz shtick is your creation!
On the other hand you do betray some knowledge of NYC and I know he's from Kentucky and has lived in Florida, too. You've never made reference to either of those states. You've also made reference to jewish stuff and Israel and I know he's gentile.
So,maybe you do exist as a blog commenter. Where's your own site though? I thought you might be one of my friends from back home like "Harvey" or "Gary's Boner". They're native New Yorkers and Jewish and slightly to my right poltically and know how to yank my chain.
But I'll give you credit. You come around these sites and you offer your distasteful opinions and you don't give a crap. And you've got some attitude which is good. Me, I'm patient. And I like contrary opinion even when it's oboxious. But there are some very fine bloggers I know who aren't so patient, who've been very supportive of my shit, so I may have to keep an eye out because you've been bugging one of two of them. Bug me instead. I don't mind. And I've already crippled you over Spartacus's gaff on the challenge bet.
kelso, you wrote:
"We have differences of opinion about the NOI and as you call it "draft dodging"."
It's a technical term.
The key is like the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. One is legal, the other isn't.
Draft avoidance is one thing. It's legal and there was a well developed school of practical advice for those who wanted to avoid traumatic dismemberment in a rice paddy.
Draft dodging is illegal and comes with a price, though in Clinton's case, it was one he was never forced to pay. Ali gave up the best years of his career, and lost many of his fans.
Where am I supposed to post these Regrets/Non-Regrets?
It seems to me the Non-Regrets, like the Regrets, must arise from two-sided situations where I chose a path, that in hindsight still looks like the right choice.
It appears that some of the Non-Regrets I've read are simply accounts of one-sided situations that are unquestionably positive no matter how you look at them.
kelso,
I cut and paste to avoid any confusion about what's to be examined. That's the only reason. In my experience people will very quickly say "but I didn't say that" as they try to escape their own words. The beauty of blogs and all this internet stuff is the fact that everyone's words are retrievable and easy to see. That ends the retreats, evasions and endless claims of being misquoted.
Then there's the issue of "but that's not what I meant, you're twisting my words", which is more nonsense from people who do not fully realize that words are never as concrete as we would like.
So:
"You come by all these lefty blogs and cop a shit attitude..."
Compared with what? The spew appearing on many blogs?
And:
"...never once admitting that you might not know something about whatever subject..."
Also untrue. Most blog material reflects the workings of the writer more than it reflects concrete fact. And some interpretations of the world are just wrong. I see it in bright colors when race is the issue.
And:
"...pissing the blog proprietors and all the other commenters off, coming on with this obnoxious cut-and-paste riff..."
Oh. As if they don't piss me off with some of their insane commentaries.
I've noticed that many bloggers want a fan club, and they are unequipped to defend their views because much of their commentary is driven by emotion rather than facts. That's fine. But call it what it is. Appeals to moral sense, or appeals to something above the common realities of millions of people colliding in various ways as they go through the day.
NO_slappz:
Tranquilate, tio pue'. I told you I like you and I want intelligent right-wing opinion expressed here. I'll bust your balls but never censor you. I don't have a fan club. I wish I did, but sadly I don't. What I do have is very bright commenters who actually read my words. That's plenty for me. You don't have to suck my dick.
OK, I get it about the cutting-and-pasting but it's still obnoxious. You're not fighting for your life here. You're not even risking any money. Just chill. Say anything you like. I weicome dissent. If we ever got down to discussing economics and finance you might discover that I'm far to YOUR right but that's kind of a city thing maybe you missed out on. I don't know.
Anyway, for god's sakes don't stress about the tag. Just write down 5 regrets you've had. And 5 non-regrets, i.e., decisions you've made that you're happy with.
Don't think that because some of us express emotions that we're not dealing in facts. Ni fucking lechugo mucho menos. The American debate is always 55%-45%. We're not debating Communism versus Capitalism. Nor Slavery. No one is going to have right on his side every time on every issue. When it's largely a toss-up, facts colored and flavored with emotions make a powerful case. And when writing stylistics are added to the mix, everyone's game gets better by reading nice turns of phrase from other bloggers. I can't speak for you, but my expository writing has improved a lot with just reading all of the people I've got linked. And this is very important to me because I don't speak or write much English anymore. Blogging and phone calls home are it to a greater or lesser extent.
But what's up with you, Jack? Why are you wound so tight. Like why do you feel the need to step to me with this tax avoidance/tax evasion bullshit. You know I have an MBA from UCLA. You know I've founded two hedge funds and 5 separate business in the US, UK, and Panama, ranging from gambling to tech to arts and entertainment to repackaged portfolios of startups. Like I fucking don't know about that? I've forgotten more about tax law than you'll ever know. I've presented papers before the World Bank. Chump, what have you done?
I realize that your idea of what my politics should be are at odds with my professional life but you see things in sharp distinctions. I don't. I see no contradiciton between my left-wing politics and my ambition and methods of quantitative analysis.
If you've followed any of my runnings about the internets, you'll know that I grew up in Chelsea in the 60s and 70s and was a member of Hudson Guild Youth. OK, genius, what does that tell you? ................
You don't know, do you? Because you DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING. It means that I grew up around two strong cultural poles among the adults: the arts scene and the garment industry. It means that I grew up in a competely mixed neighborhood. OK, Jewish and Puerto Rican dominated. That's where I learned Spanish. That's where I learned about gambling and street life and the Velvet Underground and shit like that.
There was a guy named Carl Rosen who was a massive garmento. His business lives on the THEORY line of clothing. He was a hero to all us urchins because he had a lot of money but dealt with the ILG respectfully and fairly and was a champion of left wing causes. His protege, Barry Schwartz and Schwartz's best friend Calvin Klein formed a little clothing line you may have heard of. Those guys were the same way. They never forgot where they came from.
So, I've never seen capitalism and left-wing politics at odds because I've seen what fair businessmen can do without fucking people over. And I've seen what kind of fruit hard work brings.
I don't know how old you are of what your deal is. If I had to guess, I'd say you were probably one of the more enlightened Black Hats in Crown Heights. Or one of the more conservative Jews (politcally) in Prospect Heights or Flatbush.
If you are an Israeli, you are like none I've ever met before. Say what you want about Israelis but I've yet to meet one that wasn't a fuckload of fun or one who took things as fucking seriously as you do.
A lot of people who I link to can't stand your ass. Maybe you're more welcome on the right-wing sites. I don't know. I like you, though. I think your comments are on point and you add a perspective to the conversation. I don't agree with 99% of what you write and I think your attitude is terrible.
Now, where's your blog? You can be part of something interesting here or you can be a "dittohead." An intelligent dittohead but a dittohead nonetheless.
I regret:
1. Not taking the OB/GYN by the neck and ordering him to cut that baby out after I realized my almost-born son was suffering fetal distress. Yes, he was permanently affected by birth trauma, but it takes a skilled eye to spot the impact now.
2. Not going to the husband of the woman I wanted to marry and telling him I was taking his wife. She and I had known each other before she married him. We decided we’d live longer if we didn’t act on our punishing mutual attraction. Four years later, after she was married, we did. But I couldn’t pry her loose. It was close. If I had, and I’d married her, it’s likely everything would have ended badly, which, of course means it should have happened.
3. Not lying to the officers in charge of admitting me into the Army Warrant Officer Corps where I would have flown helicopters had I gotten past them.
4. Not putting everything and more into the conversions (IPOs) of mutual savings banks, a unique investment opportunity which was the closest thing to free money on Wall Street. I did a lot of it, and reaped plenty. But I could have made far more by simply repeating the simple task of opening savings accounts with more money in more mutual savings banks, and hence, positioning myself to receive bigger allocations in more deals.
5. Not working fast enough to find my biological mother before she died. From my half-sister, I learned a cerebral hemorrhage nailed her at 55. I didn’t know I had been looking for a ghost. I wanted to find her and thank her for not having an abortion, but unknowingly lost that chance.
I don’t regret:
1. Battling an obnoxious CEO in a lawsuit.
2.Putting the police onto my former neighbors for child abuse, despite threats from several members of this dysfunctional family and despite the neighborhood complications that followed.
3. Leaving a good-paying job with a small investment bank after realizing the founder was violating an SEC order.
4. Ending my experiment as a NY City math teacher.
5. Studying engineering rather than English.
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