My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

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Resurrecting Uncle Tom

by on ·Opinion, Politics

I was wrong. Not many people would willingly admit that. The truth can smack them in the face like a Key Lime cream pie, and even while licking off the pastry, they’ll refuse to admit they were wrong.

I’m also opinionated. Anyone who knows me knows that. However, when stating my point of view, I usually feel confident that I am well-informed about my subject and not merely speculating.

Who doesn’t enjoy the ego boost of being right? I do as much as the next person, but my credibility trumps my ego. So, usually, before arguing a point, I fact-check. And sometimes, I learn more than I thought I knew about the subject.

For example, the other day, while on a social media site, I noticed that a politician (I’ll call him Doe, minus the John ) was strongly criticized after a TV newscast showed him kowtowing to a specific presidential candidate. People in the chat room were livid. They said Doe’s behavior was not only degrading but made him look like a genuine suck-up. I agreed with what folks were saying about him, and while enthusiastically adding my two cents, I referred to the subject as Uncle Tom. (Did some of you readers say, “Oh, no, you didn’t?) Yes, I did.

Bad move! One of the other commenters in the room checked me on my remark. She politely but dutifully informed me that Doe was not an Uncle Tom and added that calling him that would be insulting to Uncle Tom.

My fingers were positioned over the keyboard, preparing to type a humorous retort, but I changed my mind. Instead, after leaving the site, I did what I often do when challenged – I researched the subject. And I soon discovered that Uncle Tom (a fictional character from abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin) was not the minion many people believe him to be.

Tom’s character is based on a slave named Josiah Henson, who became a minister after being introduced to religion. (Some of you readers are saying, “I knew that.” Good for you. I didn’t know it; if I did, I forgot it. So, I’ll continue.)

Henson was born June 15, 1789. As he grew older, his enslavers recognized him for his exceptional physical strength and leadership ability. That gave Henson some leeway that he used to his advantage. He was a clever fellow and had a sense of humor, too.

In 1830, Henson ran away from the plantation in Charles County, Maryland, to Canada. A few years later, he returned to the plantation and stole away his wife and children, bringing them to his new homeland. In the years following, the courageous fugitive led other enslaved people to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

In 1849, with the assistance of abolitionist Samuel Atkins Eliot, Henson published Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson. That same year, Henson met author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Four years later, Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to buoy an argument against the injustices and hideousness of slavery.

Stowe’s book was eventually adapted for theaters. Shrewd producers of stage performances, fearing they could not attract an audience for the theatrical production as written by Stowe, took liberty and fashioned minstrel shows based on the novel. Those shows where actors appeared in blackface diminished Stowe’s disclosure of the inhumanities of slavery. Instead, it made a mockery of it. In 1903, Edwin S. Porter’s film production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin further grossly distorted Tom’s character and embodied racial stereotypes. Those theatrical productions were instrumental in contributing to the negativity and the fable that encouraged black Americans to begin using the misnomer to slur other blacks who they felt relinquished their dignity to elicit the favor of influential Caucasians.

I’ve been familiar with the “Uncle Tom” slur all my life. I heard it used often during the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings and even more recently ascribed to Dennis Rodman and Kanye West aka Ye.

I know that name-calling is wrong. (Mother, rest your soul, you taught me that.) But I’ve never claimed to be perfect. Like every other flawed individual, I am sometimes judgmental, often opinionated, and an equal opportunity wisecracker. All one can hope to do in this crazy world is end up on the right side of wrong and keep educating oneself in the process.

As long as people remain ignorant of the truth behind Stowe’s main character, the myth of Uncle Tom as a model for negative racial stereotypes will persist.

I should not have been surprised to learn that soon after its publication because it exposed the horrors of slavery, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was banned in the Southern United States and Russia. In these contemporary times, it remains on the banned books list in some states. Lesson learned.

 

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An Open Letter to Nikki Haley

by on ·Political Humor, Politics, The Way I See It

Nikki Haley, you blew it, girl. But you know that, don’t you? That’s why you’ve been backtracking and trying to clean up your mess ever since the New Hampshire town hall meeting last Wednesday. Your evasiveness on that Civil War question so outraged the spirits of my ancestors that I could visualize them pursing their lips and shaking their heads.

How could a former governor of South Carolina, SOUTH CAROLINA, of all states, flub the answer to a question about the Civil War? Remember Fort Sumter? No, not the Alamo, Fort Sumter. Would you have responded the same way if, instead of campaigning for president, you were on Celebrity Jeopardy, and the final question was, “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?”

Joking aside, between you and I, we know you didn’t really flub it. You knew what you were doing. You were playing your cards right and dealing them from the bottom of the MAGA deck.

When asked about the cause of the Civil War, you mentioned freedom relative to the government’s role and how it would be run. But the “S” word, “slavery,” never slipped off your tongue. And then you tried to flip the script by asking the questioner what he thought caused the Civil War. Nikki. Nikki. Nikki. SMH

I hope you or one of your assistants is reading this, Nikki because I want you to know that it’s people like you who have turned this former political junkie against politics and shady politicians. Yes, I’m gradually weaning myself away from all things political. “What’s that?” you said. Of course, you don’t care. And I don’t care that you don’t care. But let me tell you about when I became interested in politics.

It was decades ago. Before I retired, I worked for a couple of lobbying firms. One day, my employer, a former Chicago State Senator, had me accompany him to Capitol Hill for a meeting with then-Senator Barack Obama. You remember him, don’t you? Of course you do. Some months after I met him, Senator Obama became President of the United States. That made my day but probably spoiled yours.

I enjoyed working at both of the lobbying firms. Shortly after I entered that profession, one manager told me they prefer to be known as a government relations office instead of a lobbying office. Apparently, “lobbying and lobbyists” get a bad rap. (That’s rap as in reputation, Nikki, not music. I’m just saying, in case you didn’t know.) I suppose that bad rap concerns PAC contributions and how they influence politics, right? Surely, you know all about PACS and Super PACS. But we’ll keep that on the down-low.

My position required that I visit the Capitol building and the six Senate and House office buildings on numerous occasions. I even rode the subway beneath the Capitol building, which shuttles senators and staff between their offices a few times. Although my trips to Capitol Hill were usually to retrieve bills from the document room, meet with Congressional staff, or deliver PAC checks, I didn’t mind being the gofer because I got to see and experience a side of the legislative branch of government that many folks don’t.

I think Capitol Hill is one of this city’s most beautiful areas, whether blanketed in snow or adorned in springtime by various beautiful flowers, plants, and trees. That’s why, to this day, I get so angry whenever I think about or see a TV news clip showing the January 6, 2021, insurrectionists climbing up the side of the building like an intrusion of cockroaches.

During my years of employment in government relations offices, I met many politicians besides President Obama. Some of the others I remember include the late Senators Ted Kennedy, Bob Dole, DC Mayor Marion Barry, House Speaker John Boehner, and Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

I’m glad that I’m retired and away from all things political. Who wants to be associated with that profession? And who would like to be president? Bad question. Strike that. I won’t say that politicians are to blame for all the things tearing this country apart, and I wouldn’t dare suggest that one particular party, sometimes described as the MAGA-ring circus, fueled the fire. Wink.

Even a blind man can see that the whole world is having a nervous breakdown. The detrimental effects of global warming and climate change are wreaking havoc on the environment. With its expensive robotic contraptions and elaborate devices, the technological revolution is further straining the relationship between the affluent and the disadvantaged. And whether the blame gets laid on the economy, social injustice, or the status quo, people everywhere have gone rogue and lost their freakin’ minds. Unconscionable souls embrace all things immoral, evil, and unlawful. Warfare, crime, and mass killings are escalating. Progress is regressing on women’s rights, civil rights, human rights overall, and racists are banning books and trying to whitewash black history. Jumpin’ Black Jesus! What next?

I’m closing this letter to you now, Nikki. I just had to get some things off my chest and remind you that God don’t like ugly; that includes lying and denying. Before I go, may I suggest some books for you to read? Nevermind that some of them are on the banned list:  The 1619 Project by  Nikole Hannah-Jones; Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds; and Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery by Robert William Fogel

One last thing, girlfriend, and I’m done. Wasn’t it Will Rogers who said, “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke?”

 

 

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Living in America: An Average Citizen Vents

by on ·Law and Order, Opinion, Politics

The following post was written by a Guest Author, Anonymous

Bear with me while I vent. Several hours ago, while listening to Keith Olbermann’s latest podcast (Countdown with Keith Olbermann), I fully realized the appalling potential danger the 45th president created for this country when he took classified documents from the White House.

If you are like me, you’ll feel stunned and outraged after listening to Olbermann’s take on how one depraved and treacherous moron may have set America on a path to subjugation or eventual destruction.

Consider how enemies of the U.S. have worked long and hard to infiltrate and access this country’s most profound, crucial secrets by hook or crook. And then think about the authoritarian wannabe treating the secrets as nothing less than copyrighted recipes that he could use for profit or to gain influence. Of course, his blatant disregard for democracy and this country is nothing new.

Numerous people who could have done something to prevent this national tragedy but did nothing must shoulder the blame. The list of the guilty is lengthy. If Merrick Garland had been forthcoming, he could have exposed the dilemma early on. Mueller, too was deferential. Even Obama could have brought 45 to court for defaming him with false wiretapping allegations. Anyone of them might have prevented what has become a national tragedy. Being submissive to people you know to operate on an entirely malignant, evil, self-serving path is morally costly and reckless. Perhaps it would have created bedlam if any of those who might have taken steps to prevent the tragic results had stepped up, but it also would have shown 45 that America and Americans of good conscious won’t tolerate his nonsense. So, the perpetrator pursued his mission, and it has come to this.

How many people do you suppose have been hired at Mar-a-Lago since 45 was in office and following his defeat? How many housekeepers? How many gardeners, cooks, cleaners, pool boys, janitors? You don’t think Russia, North Korea, or Saudi Arabia is smart enough to assign someone to infiltrate that place? It doesn’t seem unreasonable when you consider some of the sinister, underhanded stuff some of these countries have done in the past. Does it?

This country may never know the extent of the damage done until it’s too late to do anything about it. That’s what’s so creepy and so unforgivable about this situation. What a betrayal. And what an unforced error for those who may have prevented it.

America’s obeisance and submission to the wealthy, privileged whites, and powerful, especially when they espouse an ideology of supremacy and hierarchy, may become this country’s downfall. If the U.S. survives this trial by fire, the government must redouble efforts to make this country dedicated to equality, truth, and justice for all and stop allowing the wealthy and well-connected to play on a different stage.

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Viewing Ukraine from the Dark Side

by on ·Humanity, Opinion, Politics, Race Matters

Co-written with David White

Some of my friends, who, like me, are people of color, seem indifferent to what is happening in Ukraine. I am not indifferent, but I am troubled by the lack of compassion.

Some justify their apathy by referencing our history, the history of Blacks in America. They cite the horrific things that happened to our ancestors and the atrocities still happening today; from pre-civil rights era lynchings and the heinous murder of Emmett Till to the contemporary “modern-day lynchings” – death by cop of George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, and countless others.

When MSNBC interviewed some black and brown students stranded in Ukraine, they described how people like them are being prevented from boarding trains and are facing other slights. Like the millions of Ukrainians, the foreigners just want to get out of the country.

My contrarian friends feel they have no skin connection to the Ukrainians and therefore lack empathy, and that’s their prerogative. I, on the other hand, can’t help but feel empathy. Whenever I learn about man’s inhumanity to man; I always recall the words of Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

My cousin, David, and I share feelings about what is happening in Ukraine. I’ve summarized below some of what he expressed to me:

Unfortunately, it takes a tyrant like Putin to devise and implement a diabolical plan to take over a small, democratic country before people begin doing a much-needed self-evaluation. He is showing us precisely what happens when self-serving dictators run amok. Things turn out badly for many innocent people who simply want to live their lives.

The warning sirens began sounding shortly before the Orange One was elected when he asked Russia to help him get elected – by any means necessary – and Russia did!

Then, for the next four years, we watched 45 kowtowing and kissing Putin’s ring. We saw him stroke the flames in Ukraine to please Putin and advance his own crooked agenda while his Republican cohorts shrugged and looked the other way.

All we have to do is look back at this country four years ago and how we haven’t entirely extricated ourselves from our own mess. It really can be depressing. But, hopefully inspiring, to make sure we fix it now and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

The most frustrating part is that we know the formula for peace – the ideals of brotherhood and equality. But the price is the denial of selfish aims and goals. A price too high for too many people.

Scruples, morals, principles – things that take so much time and energy to teach, fight an eternal and existential battle against what Freud would call the “Id”; the drive to put self and selfish desires above anything that intrudes upon those pursuits. If Putin would see the Ukrainians as human beings worthy of life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness equal to his and those he cares about (if any), then what he is doing would be unimaginable.

It’s why I don’t question the decisions that Biden makes on behalf of this country or why I didn’t question Obama’s motives. You don’t put yourself out there to face the disdain and contempt (for you and your family) while fighting for things like basic healthcare, decent wages, and fair treatment in law and justice unless you are grounded in something beyond yourself.

That’s why it is easy for me to know who to vote for in most elections. And the Republicans are making it practically a slam-dunk. Everything they do and say is based on the premise that the world is about the “haves and the have-nots” and their assumption that the “have-nots” should know their place and be satisfied with it! So if they have to contrive, cheat, lie or kill to maintain that social order, it’s okay with them because the ends justify the means.

A world where people they have ordained to be less worthy are treated as equal to them is intolerable and against their self-designed world order. No advantages? Unthinkable. No (enforced, perceived) superiority? Blasphemous. For they have (tried) to convince themselves that a Divine has appointed them over all others- at least that’s the lure demagogues like Hitler and his ilk have employed, perhaps since human existence began.

Zelenskyy is an inspiration reminiscent of so many brave heroes of the recent and not so distant past, like Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malala Yousafzai. and many more.

I feel that Putin has bitten off more than he can chew and has incurred the wrath of an entire world (with a few minor exceptions), and this transgression will be too much for him to overcome. The only thing I feel disconcerted about is how much destruction he is willing to inflict on his way down. Unfortunately, his type doesn’t ever accept the errors of their ways; they merely double down.

The best we can do is pray and stay grounded in what is right. The principle proffered by Rev. Theodore Parker and the quote by Dr. King, who encapsulated it, says, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

We must keep our faith that it will work out okay. And knowing of your fondness for quotes, let me close with this, another one by Dr. King, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

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Warriors for Justice

by on ·Law and Order, Lifestyle and Culture, Opinion, Politics, The Way I See It

The following post was written by Guest Author, David White.

Think 1955 in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The murderers of Emmett Till are on trial, and everyone – everyone – black and white knows that the outcome of the case is a foregone conclusion. The prosecution team does the best they can. Till’s Uncle, poor Mose Wright, under immense life-threatening duress, identifies the culprits in front of the crowd in the courtroom, and the murderers still get off scot-free.

Fast forward to 2021, and put yourself in the House Managers’ position at the 2nd Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump. Imagine the demoralizing effect of knowing that you face a group of Senate jurors who are as intractable and oppositional as those in the Emmett Till case. The Managers did an excellent job. They certainly inspired me to want to do more to ensure that we preserve the ideals they so eloquently and fervently advocate.

Their opponent was the personification of autocratic nihilism, a man who would gleefully watch the destruction of the beautiful Capitol building, a structure erected with immeasurable toil, blood, and tears. A man who would encourage an insurrection because voters spoke and he could not find enough accomplices to help implement his devious plan to invalidate the election results and maintain power.

The word that perhaps best sums up what I witnessed from the former president’s defense would be “absurd.” Of course, when your client is the 45th president of the United States, you expect nothing other than absurdity.

Look at some of the imprudent and sometimes humourous outbursts from the trial (with a few personal interpolations).

“Mr. Chairman, the prosecution is being unfair, they’re bringing in evidence that implicates my client, and I feel that is prejudicial and so….uh, wrong”.

“Mr. Chairman, they’re using his words as reported by the media and as promulgated on social media platforms, and how can that be fair? After all, they’re only reports, and who would ever be prosecuted or found guilty on mere reports, even if they are his own words?”

“I declare ‘reports’ to be hearsay and inadmissible and totally unfair”.

“I say they should present their case without reports, without incendiary video, and simply go about fixing the pandemic and racial inequity.”

“Mr. Chairman, we reserve the right to imply that their presentation is fraudulent and hypocritical because we say it is.”

“And we reserve the right to present statements into evidence that are mere assertions and assert them as facts, because – the prosecution is partisan.”

“And we know they’re partisan because they identify as Democrats, except Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, the numerous other Republican congressmen and women who declared the trial valid along with the over 100 legal scholars of all political persuasions who determined my client was guilty of inciting insurrection. So, this whole trial should be declared a sham, and let’s all go home in the name of unity.”

“Oh, and by the way, the videos they showed with my client appearing to egg on those pre-meditated incursionists didn’t tell the whole story. They forgot the part, somewhere after about the tenth time he said fight, that he dropped in the word peacefully in a totally non-sarcastic manner. As we know, my client does not have a sarcastic, insincere bone in his body.”

“Since they can doctor up videos let me show you some totally out-of-context videos, for several minutes, of numerous Democrats, many of them in this chamber at this time, using the word ‘fight,’ which of course I will present in a nonpartisan manner because we on this side don’t believe this should be a partisan matter.”

“And while I’m at it, let me show some gratuitous videos of violent street incidences involving a lot of people of diversity with the implication that these are Black Lives Matter and Antifa members; not Trumpers acting violently, though not put in any contextual framework because – somehow this is really a trial about Antifa and BLM, and we really shouldn’t be partisan.”

“So, in conclusion, Mr. Chairman what I’m saying is, you can’t find that my client, who called those well-known violent thugs, racists, anti-semites and kooky conspiracy theorists to the Capitol for a ‘wild’ day as Congress was certifying the election that he legitimately loss, but which we don’t have to admit, guilty of incitement, just because he sent them there to fight like ‘you know what’  or they would lose their country.”

“Oh, one more thing, can you call a recess so that I can consult with the jurors as to how to go about assuring my client’s acquittal?”

I brought up the Till case to push back on this notion that I’ve been hearing from pundits that I generally respect, like Ari Melber and Joy Reid, that the House Managers were derelict by not demanding witnesses to “look those jurors in the eye” and tell them about the pain and suffering they’ve endured. Presenting witnesses may have produced more tearjerking drama, but in my opinion, it would not have brought more conviction votes from naysaying Senators who had already – over three days – seen proof of criminal acts.

Just as an affidavit, handwritten by Emmett Till and certified by God, would have been rejected by the Mississippi court, no truth or proof that anyone else could have provided in that Impeachment Trial would have swayed any of the Trump loyalists.  Furthermore, the trial would have descended further into their nihilistic trap and turned into a comedy of errors.

Lawyers for the Defense:  “Mr. Chairman, if they call this witness, I demand that Kamala Harris be called…VP Harris, are you now or have you ever been a member or associate of Antifa or BLM?”

House Managers: “Objection.”

Lawyers for the Defense:  “You can’t object. This isn’t a real court of law, and the chairman is not a real judge. Mr. Chairman, they are being unfair in not allowing me to question my witness as I see fit.” (Moments later) “The defense now calls Rep. Maxine Waters to the stand.”

Back to critiquing the trial, I loved how Chaplain Barry Black designed his opening prayer to touch the conscience of anyone who was listening who had a conscience. He was precise about what the trial was supposed to be about (truth over falsehood, courage over cowardice). And I imagined his majestic voice and prayer emanating from above, delivering a message about good battling evil, and lies versus truth to souls that need saving.

House Managers Jamie Raskin, Joe Neguse, and Stacey Plaskett’s presentations were uplifting, and I was especially impressed by their impassioned, principled exhortations to righteousness. Raskin’s citings of Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and the Bible were also profoundly inspiring.

Although most Republicans clung to their false prophet, there were some courageous living testimonies on that side, too. Burr, Romney, Cassidy, Murkowski, Collins, Sasse, and Toomey sought and will find salvation in the truth.

Following the Emmett Till trial, Wright and the two other black men who testified against the killers had to relocate away from Mississippi. The fate of the courageous seven Senators in the 2nd Impeachment Trial, along with the previously insufferable Liz Cheney, may not cause them to be run out of town; still, it is not unreasonable to think that a megalomaniacal sociopath and his disciples will try to punish them in every way possible. They are to be commended for their courage.

The “fight” for justice continues, and righteous warriors carry on.

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