Do not tempt a desperate man
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 5 Scene 3
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Is fear the only thing we feel as we stare through the open window into the future, certainly seems this might be the truth of it, at least for many of us.
The question must be asked, what is it we fear? The better question is, what do those in power fear.
Is it the future itself; is it the unknown and unknowable? Or is it something else, something we can see out of the corner of our eye that frightens the hell out of us. Is it the loss of something most of us don’t have but are certain we could if only, what?
If only, something would happen the way it was promised, by all those damnable slick men way back in the day who said to us, it was them folks over there who were sucking up what was ours, taking away our jobs, our tax dollars and if we voted for them they would make it right. Those slick politicians who said if we would pay a bit more so the ‘job creators’ could pay a great deal less, it
would trickle down to us, you know we would be lifted up with them and those moochers and leeches would be left behind in the gutters where they belonged. If only, it would begin to happen the way it was promised way back when St. Ronnie started telling us the Gospel of Trickle Down and the Parable of the Welfare Queen.
What is it they fear?
I think I know what it is so many in this nation truly do fear. They fear the loss of power. They fear the loss of autonomy. They fear the loss of true majority and the loss of privilege. They fear they will no longer be able to walk through the world with complete sovereignty over every speck of dirt their feet touch and the assurance no person can push them off their pedestal.
That is what they fear and that fear is palatable. It is clear in the laws passed to prevent people from going to the polls and from voting even when they get there. It is clear in the militarization of police forces across the nation, the shift from ‘protect and serve’ to ‘command and control’. It is clear as the corruption of justice becomes blatant, supported by corporate media and corporate owned politicians. It is clear as prison systems become private, corrupt and for profit feeding the greed of the same small feudal lords who own the defense contracts, the militarization of the police, the guns on our streets, our state houses and Washington.
What is it they fear?
I will tell you what they fear. They fear the loss of Whiteness as a sign of Good and Right. They fear the loss of control. They fear the loss of Power. They fear they might not be the biggest, baddest monster in the woods and it scares the living hell out of them. What are they doing? They are trying hard to crush all dissent by any means necessary. They have been doing so for years, decades really. For a brief moment in time, it shifted, but not really what happened is things calmed down and we all looked in a different direction. The truth of the matter is, it is hard as hell to wrest power from the hands of those who have it. It is difficult to convince those who are hanging on to let go, to fall backwards that someone will catch them.
I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960 in response to racist signs held up during a motorcade in Tennessee
It seems we haven’t come far since the signing of the Civil Rights Act by President Johnson. The difference between today and 1960, we have a Black President the hate, fear and outright disrespect shown towards him and his family has escalated to a fever pitch in direct response to the fear of the White Man, no matter their place on the economic scale. Oddly, it is predominately the poor and ignorant who hate him, in fact the lower on the economic ladder the more vehemently the hate is expressed.
What do they fear?
Those in power, fear dissent, ultimately they fear the loss of power and thus they are doing everything they can to retain their power. They are crushing the spirit of this nation. They are crushing everything that could make us great, humiliating, imprisoning and killing communities and people. They are dividing us, making those of us who should come together in common cause enemies instead. They are destroying our education system, making each generation more ignorant than the last. We are allowing this, we are buying the pabulum they are selling; sucking at the tit of mass consumerism as if we were starving and they are the sow of plenty.
We sit back and nod our heads, sit on our hands, stare stupidly at the television screen and agree as some overpaid and under-informed talking head delivers lie after lie to our living room, then we repeat it to our friends and family as if it were gospel. We allow and enable the rich and powerful to create a storyline of criminal history for every single unarmed Black Person killed by the police, armed citizen or vigilante. Remember they are the enemy of Whiteness, Rightness and all ‘we hold dear’.
We sit back and nod our heads as families are broken and the pipeline is filled from school to prison, we say not one single thing as schools crumble with not a single cent spent for infrastructure, school improvements, education improvements. Meanwhile prisons continue to be built nationwide and the vast majority of them are filled from those very schools that are crumbling. The false picture being painted, the constant harping of ‘Black-on-Black’ crime with no mention of ‘White-on-White’ crime, no mention of how often one is prosecuted over the other, no mention of outcomes resulting in long prison sentences to feed the for profit system.
What do they fear?
I think they fear we might figure it all out and we just might come together. We just might reach across the vast barrier and rise up. We just might overthrow the oligarchy, the feudal lords of profit and greed before it is too late.
What do you fear? I fear it might be too late.
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
Another fine posting that makes complete sense…
I am just reading some of the great responses to
your posting and I mirror the thoughts on most of
these, I especially like Etomczk, SomerEmpress
and Sue Dreamwalker’s thoughts on this one 🙂
I hope that you have been good in my absence? 😉
Well I guess you’re always naughty but it’s a nice
naughty with you my sweet and dear friend, and is
very wicked also 🙂 santa is coming next you know
so try being good until then, I know it will be very
hard for you to achieve but try anyway 😉 lol
Happy Thursday Val 🙂
I will be back blogging
here in the New Year
so get ready for that 🙂
Andro xxxx
Andro, you have been absent for too long. Hope all is well. I have no choice but to be good right now.
Yes I know that I have been away
from our WP too long but soon I will
be back on a regular basis 🙂 😉
I am coming back in the New Year 🙂
In the meantime have lots of fun, and
be wicked, well not too wicked but just
enough to be naughty 😉 lol
Your Naughty Times
Are Yet To Come 😉 🙂
Andro xxxx
Beautiful writing that fills me with dismay Valentine. I am afraid it is too late as well.
I continue to be filled with despair and rage, yet I am also helplessly hopeful that we find our way. It is I suppose my personality.
Gurrrl!!! Watching Tim Wise’s video now.
I love Tim Wise, he has my brain afire.
Well written, Val.
At the end of the day, the “loss of privilege” is precisely what they fear. Many have inherited good ole money from the spoils of slavery and their white ancestors that have exploited Black folk even to a greater degree than they do now. Shaking up the status quo means that they would have to turn inward and listen to the unwelcome, quiet convictions that Spirit allows to seep into their souls ; it means they will have to be accountable in some way for doing something differently; they might have to give up some shit; speak up for folk; speak up for right; speak up for the God and subsequent justice that Jesus (whom many of them claim to follow all the way to the cross and back for) so rightfully modeled; can’t go on with business as usual. It means they stand the chance to lose something –power, when their whiteness is exposed as privilege at the detriment of those who have much less.
For those who aren’t White, but have stood in the way of other more marginalized folk getting access, or getting any real piece of the pie, I say they are the first problem because they seem to have forgotten about the blood, sweat, and tears shed on their behalf many years ago, including in the form of protest and uprising. They too, stand tall, dehumanizing folk, blaming the victim for being under the butt of an officer’s gun. They complain about protests as useless, about looters as the problem. Heck, nothing good in this country came without a fight! They forgot that it was protesting (and by default, some riots too) which got folks talking and legislation moving, so they could experience the iota of “freedom” they have now. Looting? Really? What a distraction!
People have short memories. They think that they have gotten where they are on the virtue of their own efforts, some immeasurable “progress”, somehow. They complain about the protestors making a whole lot of noise with no agenda, while they hold on tightly to their privilege. How dare we Black folk and allies upset the apple cart? How dare we make this about race? How dare we try to, once again, assign value to all life? No one was supposed to be paying attention or taking notice of what’s really happening. No one. Well, good, we gon’ #StayWoke and hold their asses accountable.
I hope so. I bend my head and hope it is true, that this time we do not lose sight. I wish I could do more than write. I wish my body was not so broken with age and injury, were it not so I would be marching with them. Maybe this is what we all need, to shed our fear, our personal pain and to say the hell with it. Just get out there. Maybe what we need is for those of us who have a single breath left and believe it is time for change to create the wall , the shield and stand up.
Good morning. I admire the passion of your belief. And I wish there were many, many, many more like you who felt the way you do.
I think there are, maybe not in my age group although I think the even exist in my demographic and are being pushed out of their comfort zone once more. But I think the exist and I think they are reaching into their hearts and finding the cracks are widening and they cannot live with themselves.
Now it is an issue of how to reach across the great chasm that has developed, rightfully and righteously developed.
I agree with you, Val. I believe that hearts are tweaking open – not too quick to say they’ve opened yet, but I think that folks must be/ gotta be doing a bit more soul searching on both sides of the issues. Be well, lady.
Excellently done, Val. It is fear which is why deeply right wing media have been able to label these travesties as “Obama trying to start a race war.” More fear. But we must ignore their fear and keep pressing through and moving forward. I updated my post from last week (“Electricity is Not a Hobby”) with the stories of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and more dialogue between integrity, justice, and humanity, along with more cartoons. We’ve got to keep the conversation going. Only then will we be able to push through the fear. Great job, my friend.
Pushing forward, standing up and talking. Yes.
I will come back to your place and revisit.
Why do I even open your posts when I’m at work?? This will take some reading and thinking about.
Sorry Elyse, I hope you come back and talk to me.
Val this has to be one of your best pieces of writing.. Yes they Fear we might figure it all out, the Lies, the Sham.. the Greed of ripping us all off as we ‘Slave’ away.. And they Fear we may discover we never needed them to ‘Govern’ us at all.. For if we stopped Fearing and woke up to our own potential of the Power of our Own MINDS, and figured out Who we REALLY are… We would have them running to the hills..
So instead ‘they’ create War and control Drugs which could ease pain while the pharmaceutical industry has a licence to kill by addiction, because you need one pill then another pill to stop the side effects of the first and so on until your a chemical wreck.. And the Oil barons are in their pockets too, Raping the land, polluting the ocean, While alternative fuels are bypassed..
When you have time Val.. take a look at one of my pages here
http://suedreamwalker.wordpress.com/truth-page-climate-engineering-and-more/
But in the mean time if you have an hour to spend Watch this Brilliant post.
Well yes to all of this.
Reblogged this on MrMilitantNegro™ and commented:
The Tim Wise video is butta.
It is, I love that one. Thank you for the reblog.