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Cotton Picker du jour on that Last Plantation, The Mind: Negroes with absolutely no idea of how to be free

Farrakhan May Hold Another ‘Million Man March’. Minister Louis Farrakhan is considering organizing another national march next year – the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March – to encourage African-Americans to keep a larger share of their $688 billion annual spending in the Black community.

Light-skin Blacks Can't Avoid Color Prejudice. Akia Dickson, a student at Howard University, was headed home from work on a Washington, D.C. subway last month when a 25-year-old brown-skin Black man slid into the seat beside her.

“This guy was trying to talk to me. And he was saying, ‘Oh, I bet you have a boyfriend.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he was like, ‘All the pretty light-skinned girls do. All I need in my life is a pretty light-skinned girl,’” recounts Dickson, 23.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle.

"Why she always got to be quotin' white folks? And, anyway, he stole that from Africa." Keidi Obi Awadu (probably)

I did this show last Monday and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. I do a lot of shows and have so far held my opinion to myself about all of them, but not this time.

It did not go well. Given Awadu's mindset and the type of audience attracted to that mindset, I'm not sure things could have been very different. I was so appalled, so shocked by his puerile anti intellectualism (and that of most of his emailers), I was rendered speechless, then merely sputtering in disbelief. Ever argue with a ten year old? Know how they can leave you speechless with their arrogant inanity? It was like that. Unbelievable.

Even though it is people like him who propelled me to write The End of Blackness, I never get over my amazement at their lack of home training and hostility to any discussion putatively about the black community that doesn't revolve around white people. Except, of course, for the denunciation of those black people who dare not to think what they think. Those who dare to think outside the treadmill path Awadu and his ilk have stomped out are reserved for special hostility, personal attack and general intellectual thuggery. If you're not black precisely the way they are, you are a sell-out. So, we fought to be free of white people just to be enslaved to black ones.

But the reason he stays on my mind is how perfectly he proves the point of the EOB, that blacks have to update their identity to reflect the progress already made and that which still needs to come. That, post-Movement (however imperfect its results), we are more than the sum of our oppression. We can incorporate more into our identity than being they who are oppressed by and obsessed with white people. We can continue to work on eradicating racism while simultaneously consolidating our newfound freedom and doing what we can (which is considerable) to ameliorate the conditions that bedevil us, whoever's fault the conditions are. Otherwise, is it not true that we care more about getting guilt admissions from whites than about caring for ourselves? I love black people. He worships white people. They're all he can think about. Everytime I tried to remind him that my book was about blacks focusing on themselves, he immediately Pavlov'd his way back to his White God.

The first proof of their anti-intellectualism is their inability to understand anything I say after encountering the title, The End of Blackness. Indeed, their unexamined but all too obvious belief that they need not read the book, given it's title. Most amazing of all, they usually claim to have read the book when a child could see that they haven't. They don't have to. You see, Negroes like him belive they have a special insight into race and we race traitors. Whenever you hear one say something like, "When you've seen The White Man the way I've seen him..." run. You are about to hear vicious, virulent, haterating racism barely masking a longing for white approval and reassurance of black worth embarrassing to watch. It's like seeing someone you have no respect for naked when he thinks his door is closed; excruciating for oh so many reasons.

At the end of our puerile 'discussion' Awadu proved again one of the main points of EOB, the know-nothingness of white-obsessed blacks like him, by saying, "Shouldn't you have called the book The End of My Blackness?" My, my what a difficult concept irony, satire and parody can be for some folks. If I've learned one thing with this book, it's that when you push certain people's buttons, you push the off switch to their brains. I explain at length in the book exactly what I mean by that title yet he makes no mention of that explanation. This has happened repeatedly with "reviewers" and "interviewers;" they get stuck on a sentence and can't get past it to the two page explanation that follows. You don't have to accept my arguments but you do have to contend with them, don't you? Is he illiterate? No, it's worse.

The obvious point of the title is to shock blacks into considering exactly what their blackness coheres around. Then, to realize that we WON'T stop being black if we stop obsessing over the doing's of the all-important white man. That we define our blackness, not the other way around. When we do this, we'll become MORE black, more fully invested in our individual and then communal personalities, more fully invested in our humanity because we'll understand that it is illegitimate for us to be black in any way that violates either our, or someone else's, humanity. Like by, for example, despising white people. Or, by defending black criminals whites want to hang even though we're pretty sure they're guilty. Everything else is fair game, existentially. Play golf, marry interracially, dress like a hippie, go to Europe instead of Africa. 'Blackness' has to stop being pre-fab, one-size-fits-all, knee jerk, in any way 'required', or we're not truly free. If you black-identify, you're black. It's that simple, however you live your life. Otherwise I'm your new massa and here is the list of things you have to believe or Kweidi's gonna get you. Free is free. Chained is chained and my name aint Toby.

I am conflict-avoidant when it comes to arguing with people incapable of rigorous thought, self-examination or a free wheeling exchange of ideas, offenses of which I find the black far left to often be guilty. But, part of my message is that blacks have got to stop ex-communicating each other with bogus litmus tests. That we should grow up and work together where our agendas overlap, like any family full of contradictory opinions. So, with those good intentions, I agreed to do his show. It was ridiculous from the start. Factor in his matter of fact admissions that he'd managed to read little of the book and you can imagine what was to come.

First, off the air, he bizarrely described himself as a black conservative. This, after the "When you've seen the white man like I've seen him" claim to a special understanding which was merely racist. That was my first 'uh oh' indication: 'uh oh. Another dogmatist who thinks he's open minded and thoughtful.' Once I'd taken a look at his mumbo jumbo 'New Afrikan' website, I knew it would be bad, but it was so much worse than I was prepared for. On the reparations question, I asked what we should do if Native American protestors showed up at a commemoration of the Buffalo Soldiers, or Cuban ones at a service for the black soldiers of the Spanish American war. "Those were the white man's wars. We're not responsible for that." Case closed. We were just following orders....now where have we heard that before? I was speechless.

It took me forever to figure this gambit out. He took the following passage from page 12 (I doubt he got much farther):

"If a magic wand ended white racism tomorrow at noon, the black community would not be very much changed at 12:01. White racism doesn’t mug a neighbor at the bus stop, it doesn’t have unprotected sex or drop out of high school. It doesn’t underachieve, it doesn’t give up on the trouble students, it doesn’t give in to hopelessness and settle for a life behind a broom, it doesn’t favor its boys over its girls. It doesn’t refuse to breastfeed, it doesn’t infect fifty per cent of its young with herpes, it doesn’t believe ignorant conspiracy theories or that AIDS is a hoax. It doesn’t watch endless hours of television instead of reading to its children or overseeing their homework or taking them to a cultural event. It matters not at all whether white rates of these same phenomena are higher or lower; all that matters is that they are too high for black comfort. This is not who they want to be. There is work to do and it must be done by black people, however whites behave."

Here was his analysis after repeatedly getting me to acknowledge that he'd read it correctly: "The black community doesn't do those things. No community does those things."

"Huh?" was my response. Near as I can figure, he reads me to be saying that the black community (through some designated, perhaps elected SWAT team?) goes around mugging neighbors at the bus stop, having unprotected sex....

"'The black community favors it's boys over its girls'? Debra, you can't really belive that." Deep, huh?

My favorite: "If racism and its effects ended the community would be different. Yes, Debra, the functionally illiterate would magically become literate." Somebody didn't take Debate 101. I live in fear that he'll find my reference to a watched pot never boiling because, like, eventually it actually will and thereby invalidate my entire book.

"But they have not been left out of America; they affect rejecting it while availing themselves of every morsel of its benefits. But they are not hypocrites. They are liars acting out white-induced feelings of inferiority; they feel American to their core. The danger lies in their access to podiums from which they lead other blacks to join them in their civic insecurity. They lead blacks into asking for a refund on their American identity. They exhort them to make a mockery of their ancestors’ triumphs. But who and what are they if not Americans? African? The notion is laughable."

"Debra, you can't really belive that. Laughable?" demanded the black conservative.

I exagerrate but (this is from memory) but very little. No matter that, arguendo, I conceded that all black problems are the direct result of concerted white racism. We still could not move on to that which we could ameliorate on our own, we must only talk about white people.

Truly, I have never had so ridiculous a conversation and in my line of work, I get to have plenty. So full of himself is Awadu, that he remained serenely nice the whole time he was playing at being an intellectual and sent me a nice thank you note. Then the emails started:

Debra,

"Your interview on LIBradio was a DISGRACE! You deliberately evaded to comment about any serious analysis about your "own"(as if you really wrote this) book. The problems from this exchange with (Afrikans who are not in bed with the white establishment) is clear you hate yourself.

Your entire agenda is to disappear and fade to white. Until you deal with the system of global white supremacy that functions in: ECONOMICS, EDUCATION, ENTERTAINMENT, POLITICS, LABOR, LAW, HEALTHCARE, RELIGION, SEX AND WAR. You are a traitor to all people classified as non white. You a sellout!"

Folks like this never sign their emails. Wonder why. Note the incredible paranoia -- who did write the book, I wonder, and how was I chosen to be the beard? I chuckled when Awadu 'quipped' that Ashcroft must be causing the signal degradation his listeners were emailing him about. I stopped chuckling when I realized he wasn't joking.

I regret now having deleted the other 12 or so negative emails from the show. They were gems of the kind of know-nothing, do-nothing white obsession I'm fighting against. Check my amazon.com page for more of this nonsense masquerading as reviews of a book that has clearly not been read. I know this because they're all ad hominem attacks (really weird ones, too) posted shortly after radio or TV interviews; they claim to have read in my book things that I never said there but only on the air (the dopes think it's first person and demand to know why I didn't address things I wrote entire sections on). And why do none of them mention the 70 pages I spend critiqueing white racism, their favorite subject?

"Maybe, but first tell me what that means practically, besides libations poured to 'ancestors' and kente cloth accessories? Being black in America and the west is a full time job, you're going to have to persuade me that I should add another layer to an already overburdened psyche. You might be able to convince me but you can't order me." You could hear the emails roar. Not answer intelligently. Just roar in disgust.

What stops any black person from 'returning' to Africa if he so desires and why aren't y'all already there? Did they mean more than his Back to Africa movement? Who knows, it's all kabuki with them, no need to actually put forth an argument, just invoke totems and kiss blarney stones.

As Awadu reminded me frequently, "You said you welcomed debate." He's right but I forgot the magic word: INTELLIGENT debate. He ended his attacks with personal ones: "In the book (of which I read virtually nothing), you sound like about four people. [I forget the silly first three, but one was] the hurt little girl." What on earth does that mean?

This tactic, avoidance of intellectual engagement in favor of vicious 'hints' that I'm insane, is common. Here's another common tactic, frequent references to my having attended Harvard Law School, my having published in major publications and of course my powerful book publisher. The point? That I'm the white man's tool. Of course, when I ask why we fought and died to integrate such places if it somehow 'de-Negrifies' me to make use of them, I get no intelligent response. Couldn't be player hating could it?. (I should point out that Awade claims to have written two dozen books. Their absence on any major trade lists just speaks to how hard the white man keeps a righteous brother like him down. They, of course, would only publish a house Negro like me.) I reminded him that my parents were Jim Crow sharecroppers and that I'd attended community college and gotten both my BA and MA at night while active duty military before Harvard. Email: "Anybody that has to mention their working class credentials this much.....".

Then he hit me with 'the end of MY blackness' shot which was clearly meant to crush me. I swear, he was waiting for me to cry.

"I don't care what you think of me personally," I said. I was balancing my checkbook by this time. It's just so hard to keep track of all the money de white folks sends me for selling out my peoples.

"Nope. As is one of my book's points, I know who I am, so it doesn't matter what others think, just as blacks should stop caring what whites think." Does he think I'm running for Prom Queen?

He was so dumbfounded, it proved both that he hadn't read the book and wouldn't have understood it if he'd tried. He truly expected me to dry up and blow away in the gale force of his holy disapproval. In a vain last attempt to discuss at least one relevant issue, I brought up the community programs I was involved with and the foundation I was starting. Final parting shot: "Some people say that's a problem, too. You could work with a group that already exists."

But even though that 'discussion' went so badly, it served a purpose. I wrote this book in part to arm other forward thinking blacks against the soul-destroying do-nothingness and personal attacks they'll face for speaking truth to black power. I would imagine that ridiculous talk will be available on the site. I'd recommend listening to it just to remind yourself that this kind of anti intellectual pillorying can't hurt you in the end. You can survive the character assassination (they even attack my husband and kids on amazon. You can tell that the same people post repeatedly. Weird.) and you'll help embolden more truly emancipated blacks to assert their freedom against the new massa, self-enslaved Negroes.

I suppose it's worth it to reach the hopefully sizeable contingent of folks in his audience that aren't brain damaged; I did get two positive emails that heard me critiquing both racism and black complacency. But I guess some heads just can't manage two thoughts at once, what with what Albert Murray called 'filled but underdeveloped minds."

I think that when the white man orders me to bring out the paperback next year, i'll add these know-nothings to my dedication. After all, they are my inspiration.

Cotton-Picker of the Month on that last plantation, the mind: Had a radio 'debate' with Elaine Brown, former Black Panther leader. Read the chapter in The End of Blackness called Kente Cloth Politics: The White Man's Ice, Know-Nothingness and Black Futility; I should have run her picture there. Her idea of debate and discussion is just to throw out lists of names -- Dinish DeSouza, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, Ward Connerly -- as if those are actual arguments. As if I in any way resemble them. As if nothing they say is defensible (with DeSouza, that's true). Just babbled non sequiturs like me 'benefitting from affirmative action and not wanting anyone else to' which is nonsense. I'd said nothing about affirmative action, I don't even discuss it in the book. I told the host he should send an ambulance to her house because surely she knocked herself unconscious with the force of those knees jerking. How sad for such a once formidable leader to be reduced to substituting merely hating whitey and any black who speaks of anything other than hating whitey for an actual program. It's time for lots of the Old Heads to go. She should stick to books.