Tag Archives: Race

African-American History

Why The Destruction of Frederick Douglass’ Statue in Rochester, NY is a Meaningful Sign for Freedom Loving Americans

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It never fails that at least one of my student’s response to Frederick Douglass’ infamous speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July with a question of “How in the world did Douglass escape the building after those harsh words?”  

The referenced speech delivered on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, at Corinthian Hall during an address to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society is the Abolitionist leader’s most remembered moment for a host of reasons. Just consider for a moment that the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society invited Douglass, an enslaved person, we must never forget that the nation’s leading Abolitionist was never freed by a vengeful owner who informed all callers that they didn’t have the kind of money needed to free Douglass, to offer comments regarding the Founding Fathers decision to no longer be “slaves to Britain.” What follows is an excerpt from Douglass’s message.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival . . .

I do not know of a single living Black leader who would stand in front of an audience full of whites and deliver such a daunting speech. There is no room to debate against the assertion that Black America certainly needs more American leaders like Frederick Douglass.

It is the respect that Douglass is due that makes recent reports that a statue honoring him in Rochester, New York, was ripped from its location at Maplewood Park; a former station on the Underground Railroad. The damaged statue was found approximately 50 feet away at the edge of the Genesee River.

As a writer and historian, my soul cringes when I learn that a morsel of Black America’s contributions to this nation has been erased by racial bigots or institutionalized racism. Nonetheless, the damaging of Douglass’ statue speaks volumes regarding the unknown perpetrators’ historical illiteracy and worldview. Make no mistake about it, historical illiteracy is the gateway for foolish thoughts resting on a vast sea of nothingness.  

As you well know, the present moment is contextualized by raging culture wars that have led many whites to feel that their cultural heritage and ancestry are being assailed in some manner. Making this inexplicable situation more volatile are the daily dispatches from “45” that stoke the flames of racial animosity. It is the illogical nature of many of our countrymen that best explains the attack on Douglass’ statue in of all places Rochester, New York, a city that used to be as distant from the Confederacy as one could imagine.

However, the rising of racial bigotry in what used to be a haven for freedom loving Americans is a notable marker regarding the anger, frustration, disappointment, and fear rumbling in the hearts of a significant segment of White America.

Contemporary opponents of societal progress remind me of predecessors who also resisted the rising tide of change during the identity politic driven 1960s. While women pursued equal footing in American society, an old-guard conservative element pushed back. When Black citizens pursued the exercise of the theoretical equality found in the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights Acts, many whites longed for a time when “Negras” knew their place. When the LGBTQ community rose in an unprecedented manner, the alluded to populace fought against their desperate pleas for recognition. When Brown activists rallied under a banner of “Chicano power” frightened whites behaved as if it were the end of American civilization.

The descendants of such backwards thinking people can still be found at political events issuing tone-deaf pleas to Make America Great Again. Such is the lament of a sad group who fear that the inclusion of others jeopardizes their privileged status and politico-economic monopolies. Unfortunately for this aging aggrieved populace, the political whirlwind is encouraging an irrestible Black Panther like “All Power to the People” moment; it would not be a stretch to consider this shift in the same vein as a rising tide constructed by Mother Nature. Try as they might, those opposing change will lose, it is impossible to retard, let alone reverse, this rising tide of change.

In many ways, it is ironic that the damaging of a statue constructed to honor Frederick Douglass validates the very thoughts that he spoke nearly two centuries ago. If he were alive, I am sure that Douglass would direct his commentary at a particular segment of White America and tell them that when it comes to “revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, y’all reign without a rival.” Fortunately for the soul of this nation, in the words of Sam Cooke, a change is gonna come and it is occurring much sooner than many of us ever expected.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2020.

African-American History

PLEASE JOIN US IN WELCOMING ADRIENNE CAIN’S PRESENTATION OVER WHY BLACK WOMEN ARE THE MOST DISRESPECTED PERSON ON THE PLANET: A DISCUSSION OF THE DANGERS OF BEING BLACK AND FEMALE IN TODAY’S WORLD

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July 16, 2020

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7:30 Eastern — 6:30 Central

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ADRIENNE CAIN

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A Circus with Clowns and All: Why Efforts to Destroy “Racism” Are Destined to Fail Again and Again

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Although I am not a proponent of the idea that “history repeats itself,” I will admit that the recent rise in my white countrymen’s participation in the battle to defeat racism, America’s foremost social cancer, reminds me of a Civil Rights Movement era that I routinely address in writings and lectures. For some inexplicable reason, racial matters have become a “viral” topic in our nation.

It is difficult to argue against the assertion that NASCAR has recently been prominently placed under a blinding spotlight. The undesired attention is attributable to the presence of Bubba Wallace, the sports only African-American driver. Although most were shocked by NASCAR leaders rallying around Bubba Wallace during this moment of heightened racial discord, my reaction was none other than slight amusement.

The cause of my amusement was the result of years of studying American racial matters. Those studies informed my belief that when one considers that NASCAR has historically served as a haven for “the good ol’ boys” aka avowed white bigots a significant backlash was coming from their monochromatic fan base. I knew that if given enough time, the unending prejudice and bigotry that symbolizes NASCAR fans love for their sport would appear. It is no stretch to state that among such a crowd that not even the checkered flag is preferred over the Confederate Flag. Put simply; the initial groundswell of support for Bubba Wallace mattered little in NASCAR’s infantile efforts to stamp out the racial bigotry that is a standard fixture on their rabid fanbase. Hence, I was unsurprised when a noose, the ultimate symbol of racial intimidation, was recently discovered in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall.

A survey of U.S. history unveils a tradition of white citizens rallying against the unmistakable stench of gross racial injustice. Unfortunately, the emotionalism associated with whites decision to defeat “racism” obstructs their understanding of what it means to accomplish the multi-faceted Herculean task before them. Never do whites consider that the racial bias they seek to remove is permanent fixture within this nation that should be considered the stitching that holds the American Flag together. One can only wonder what would America be without the grand tradition of racial hatred?

Few, if any, of my white countrymen understand the impossibility of the task before them. If history is any indicator of what is to come, this latest emotionally-charged effort flowing from the filmed murder of George Floyd, this latest surge to extricate this nation’s foremost social cancer will fail as other preceding efforts.

My pessimism is grounded in the reality I have yet to hear a single person chosen by national news media (television, magazine, newspaper) specify the ultimate goals of the current surge to stamp out “racism.” The failure to define goals has proven to be the Achilles heel of every attempt to subdue prejudice, discrimination, bigotry, and institutionalized racism since this nation’s founding. Consider for a moment how you define the following terms and how people from other communities and differing backgrounds define them.

  • Black Equality
  • Freedom
  • Racial Justice
  • Ending Racism
  • Attacking Institutionalized Racism

This failure to define goals is a familiar problem that severely weakened the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement. According to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[W]ith Selma and the Voting Rights Act one phase of development in the civil rights revolution came to an end. A new phase opened, but few observers realized it or were prepared for its implications. For the vast majority of white Americans, the past decade — the first phase — had been a struggle to treat the Negro with a degree of decency, not of equality. White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination. The outraged white citizen had been sincere when he snatched the whips from the Southern sheriffs and forbade them more cruelties. But when this was to a degree accomplished, the emotions that had momentarily inflamed him melted away.

When negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared. Negroes felt cheated, especially in the North, while many whites felt that the negroes had gained so much it was virtually impudent and greedy to ask for more so soon.

Until those interested in destroying prejudice, discrimination, bigotry, and institutional racism have a serious conversation regarding what “winning” means in the battle against racial inequality, every attempt is doomed.

The appearance of a noose in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall is a succinct representation of NASCAR’s storied history. The silence of NASCAR and a host of other sports, businesses, and educational institutions regarding racial bigotry and “racism” until this turning-point speaks volumes about their commitment to ending racial disparities. One must never forget that the rush to issue statements denouncing racial bigotry today were quiet as church mice prior to the recent groundswell. If one views these matters through the correct lens they will recognize that many of those corporate America types who are expressing their support for an ending of racial bigotry and institutionalized racism not only benefited from its existence but also worked diligently to maintain, if not expand, its framework.

So, I hope that you understand my amusement at the current swell of activism against an undefined “racism.” From my perspective it is little more than emotionally-charged feel good respectability politics not even intended to alter the monopolies whites have historically held in American society.

As mentioned above, although I am not an avid supporter of the belief that “history repeats itself,” I cannot deny that MLK’s words are as applicable today as they were when they were uttered. When addressing efforts to integrate a city park, MLK offered the following criticism for his nation.

The practical cost of change for the nation up to this point has been cheap.  The limited reforms have been obtained at bargain rates.  There are no expenses, and no taxes are required, for Negroes to share lunch counters, libraries, parks, hotels, and other facilities with whites.”  The second stage called for African-American empowerment via the formation of a constitutionally guaranteed agency.  This second stage implicitly called for the destruction of white monopolies in politics, economics, and education at which even the most moderate and patient African-American leaders predicted the nation would falter.

It appears that the white leaders of NASCAR are imploring those associated with its brand to treat Bubba Wallace with a modicum of decency while maintaining exclusive control of the sport. Now, I do not want for NASCAR to believe that I am singling them out for their rather mundane attempt to combat “racism” because they have much company in the NFL, MLB, and yes, even the overwhelmingly black NBA (Michael Jordan is the only black owner). However, when placed within the larger context of American racial politics, the muting of hate-speech while maintaining politico-economic monopolies is a far-cry from justice. If I did not know any better, I could be convinced that such pedestrian efforts to remove the more virulent expressions of racial animosity being hurled at Blacks as a further buttressing of inequitable power dynamics.  

The failure to even issue calls for a re-distribution of power within industries that have historically kept blacks out guarantees that “racism” will move forward with a smile instead of the usual snarl. It is the breaking apart of white politico-economic monopolies that is the only goal worth pursuing, not the issuance of a milder form of racial inequity. However, such realizations call for so-called movement leaders to develop a non-reactionary agenda flowing from an in-depth understanding of America’s storied history of racial bias; and that is simply something that they are incapable of doing.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture 2020.

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African-American History

THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK

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Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys’ and girls’ heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head,—some way. With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT DUBOIS