"and you wonder why we don't like you." ~ The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

During the movie cited in my title, a Narnian (shown above), believed to be from a race extinct was discovered by the Telmarines, who were bent upon genocide. They believed the Narnians to be inferior and a plague and to be eliminated.

When brought before the court of disbelieving Telmarines, the leader of the Telmarines backhanded the little Narnian, who uttered those words.

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I have written before that we as Black people should not wait for the racist to stop being racist before we move on to bigger and better things. It is almost apoplectic to do so and it certainly doesn't provide any optimism for one who chooses to remain in this atrophitic state.

But, we are consumed by it; we are hyper-sensitive to those who hate us, or those who belittle us, or those who characterize us in denigrating ways. We continually cite the injustice of it all and we scream and castigate those who, for their own reasons, just don't like us...therefore, we don't like them. This is a circular argument for failure.



The basis for all of this, of course, is fear. They who hate someone, are the product of fear -- either taught or learned. One hates you; you hate them; then you find someone who feels as you do, and now you have a community of haters.

So, the question begs, "what do you know about me that makes you hate me so?" Is it what you see from other people who look like me? Are you basing this on images blasted to the rest of the world by those who are consumed by the excitement of fringe experiences? Am I in that video that you see, or that high schooler with their pants hanging down?

What makes me like them, and why would you think that? What is your basis for this?

Is it the human propensity to actively find differences between people in order to propagate a sense of superiority? Does your position of privilege extend to a reasoned opinion that claims that I must be inferior because I am in 'your' country...a country that you took from someone who you deemed inferior to you?

So, I am bemused when I hear the Tea Party state how they are going to "take back" America...and the tone becomes racist (read, back from the inferiors).

Listen, there is common ground in America and there is enough of it to take those on the fringes and minimize their power to persuade people to see things their way. The liberal v. conservative v. ultra-conservative clash is not solving anything that is practical. All of those debates are in the abstract because there is no verifiable evidence that any one ethnic group is genetically superior to another.

To that end, EVERY day needs to be a Black History month so that we don't fall for the psychological trap that ensnares the person with little or no self esteem. When we feel better, let alone "good" about ourselves, then we won't allow self-hatred or self-destructive attitudes and behavior to force us into things which help us to escape reality such as drugs or sexual gratification.

To be sure, there may be some ethnic groups, who because of the innate human ability to adapt to where we live, have prospered to a degree higher than another but that prosperity is relative to where they are...and can be transferred to a new location because of practiced instinct.

Within every group, there are the pious and there are also the heinous. The ability to love everyone is just as powerful as the ability to annihilate everyone in the name of power or otherwise.

So, given these characteristics, when a group of people is just as liable as another to create or destroy, then what makes that group decide that another ENTIRE group of people has overriding characteristics that allow for that entire group to be labeled in negative ways?

Further, why do we believe it when people call us worthless, inferior, leeches on society, et al.?

There was a book written when the Black Muslims first came on the scene called "The Hate That Hate Produced." Whether the premise was true or not, the concept is one that is true throughout our history: you hate us? Well, we hate you for hating us!

Where is our nobility that says "Kiss My 'Inferior' Azz"...we don't CARE if you hate us! We have enough EVIDENCE that will prove that YOU have a problem and we're not going to make it OUR problem! That evidence doesn't have to be translated into how or even that you enslaved us. What standard will be used to prove that we are inferior and by what standard can ensure that the standard itself is fair?

So, THIS society is unfairly stacked against us, and those like us. And??? What are we going to do about it? Tell them to stop? Why should they? Because its the right thing to do? That hasn't made them stop up to now?

We can do a "Keith Olbermann" and/or a "Bill O'Reilly" and point out the hypocrisy of the opposition all day long but what will it do to help erase either?

We can bemoan what has happened and continue to believe that things won't ever change and, guess what? It won't!

Do we stay segregated ethnically/culturally and consider ourselves totally separate from the rest of America but demand the same rights as the rest of America? That's a self-defeating proposition in itself despite the so-called freedom to do so.

Can we define ourselves as Americans and find a level of pride in that definition and thereby join with other Americans of like mind and craft a society that does not allow ad hoc definitions by either fringe of the political spectrum that seek to profit from such differentiations?

I believe that the choice is ours. The Democrats and Republicans and Tea Partiers are exclusionary by their nature and, unless and until a party is found to represent the tens of millions of American who don't vote for either one but will vote for representation that meets us where we live, we will continue to flounder as a society.

This society is way too diverse for anything less than a complete and total Thought Revolution that brings the blur of political emotions into a clearer focus toward a common good:

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

That's how I see it...what about you?

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