Upcoming Cheney interiew - more racial symbolism over substance

I saw a clip of Wolf Blitzer's upcoming interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney to air Sunday at 11 a.m. In it, Mr. Cheney spoke about how much we've progressed racially since he came to Washington in the 60s.

He said, "When I came to Washington, we'd had Kennedy assassinated, Martin Luther King assassinated and riots in the streets. Things have changed so dramatically that now, we're preparing to swear in Barack Obama as President of the United States. " (emphasis mine)

Let's be clear, I agree with him - things have changed racially in this country. But I'm not lying to myself that Obama's selection is a reflection of that. If you want to feel that way, go right ahead. But rather than showing how far we've come, I think the former Vice President's statement does more to starkly point out how far we still have to go.

The tragic irony of his statement is that, as I sit in Washington:

• It seems 22 year-old, Adolph Grimes III was assassinated on January 1, 2009 - shot by police, twice from the front and 12 times from the back (a total of 48 bullets were fired according to CNN). Grimes did have a gun - with a legal permit to carry. Now you have to ask yourself, what you would do if you're sitting in your car in New Orleans right after the New Year rolled in and plainclothes policemen pulled up in unmarked vehicles and surround your car with guns drawn - and you have a weapon with a permit to carry. Details are sketchy because the NOPD's not answering a lot of questions right now. Good idea since they've given two versions of what happened.
  
  
• It seems 22 year-old, Oscar Grant was assassinated on January 1, 2009 - shot by a Bay Area Transportation police officer in the back.
  
  
• 
  Witnesses say police handcuffed Grant after he'd been shot, but removed the cuffs right before news reporters arrived. The officer has resigned, is at home and will speak to no one on advice of legal counsel. And there was rioting in the streets.
  
  

No, neither of these men were political or spiritual leaders, but their lives mattered - to someone.
UPDATE: I just had to say this. Sitting here watching Don Lemon on CNN as they "focus" on these shootings (and that of Bobby Tolan) in their Special Investigations series. He starts out by saying, "What is going on with all these police shootings!" (emphasis his) as if they just started happening. It took his white guest, B.J. Bernstein (she was Genarlow Wilson's defense attorney), to say, "This is not new, it happens to 1 in 4 African-American males all the time." Then he switches to the Grimes shooting and asks her if given all the crime in New Orleans after Katrina, are the police a little touchy or are the shootings warranted! I guess he realized what he said, because then he added, "not that anybody's death is warranted." Christ!!! Just because CNN just started "focusing" on young Black men being gunned down by police, doesn't mean it just started happening. It's times like these that I just have to holler Zora's words: "All my skinfolks, ain't my kinfolks!!"

Nigger - the red herring in an honest dialogue about race

Before I even address the video, I need to know. Am I the only one hearing strains of "The Signifyin' Monkey" (Oscar Brown, Jr.'s version or Dolemite's - depending on your sensitivities) in the background of this Rev. Jackson/Sen. Obama thing? I mean, saying what he really feels up in the tree where he's "safe" is one thing (I promise you, he's not alone up there. Talking "amongst themselves," you can be sure there are others. SMDH).

But talking to the brother like he wasn't even on the damn ground, seems oddly akin to that monkey falling out of his tree while jumping up and down gloating, giving Lion a chance to trap him. And trap him he did, resulting in a mainstream media apology and a very public, classless and totally disrespectful admonishment from his own son. Opportunism is a soul-murdering enterprise isn't it?

So Rev. Jackson, what now?

Now, the conversation on this video is a prime example of why the issue of race in this country will continue to be mired in bullshit. I don't care how evolved Elisabeth Hasselbeck or Barbara Walters profess to be, they are not one iota removed from the culture of white privilege that not only gave birth to racism in this country, but continues to sustain it.

Elisabeth, in case you hadn't noticed, it is 2000-and-damn-8! You don't get to tell us anymore what we can and cannot say, when we can and cannot say it, what it should and should not mean. Nor should you expect we will always agree with you in an enthusiastic, "Yass'm Miss Ann, you sho' is right!" Truth be told, even back then, that "Yass'm Miss Ann" wasn't always the deference it appeared to be. After all, "twoness" was, and for many remains, a means for survival.

In the absence of anybody else giving a damn about the trauma slavery and Jim Crow inflicted upon a whole race of people, that race of people developed their own kinds of "therapy" to deal with the psyche-crushing horror that was verbal, physical, sexual and emotional abuse suffered at the hands of whites. Whether you, or anybody else for that matter, approve or not, using the word nigger - taking the sting out of it, was one of them.

But if you and Barbara must continue this feigned "I don't understand" shtick, here's a quick word usage refresher for you:

1. Main Entry: de·no·ta·tion: meaning; especially: a direct specific meaning as distinct from an implied or associated idea.
2. Main Entry: con·no·ta·tion: the suggesting of a meaning by a word apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes

Black people using the word to each other? CONNOTATION (as defined by US). White people using the word to us? DENOTATION (as defined by over 400 years of foot-on-the-neck YOU).  But quit playin', you knew that didn't you? All this noise about our use of the "N" WORD - to each other - is so you don't have to seriously talk about those pesky little institutionalized issues that disproportionately affect Black people now isn't it?

You want to know how we ever move forward Elisabeth?? Well, let's start with meaningfully addressing that woefully inadequate "E"ducation WORD. Or how about a couple substandard "H" WORDS, like Housing and Healthcare? Oh, let's not leave out those inheritance-robbing "P"redatory "L"ending WORDS, or that lack of comprehensive, innovative "T"reatment WORD (not only for the white meth-addicted crowd, but for the Black crack-addicted crowd as well).
We could also debate the shortcomings of some of those bias-based "J" WORDS, you know, Jobs, Jails, Juvenile Justice. And just to round it out, let's throw in a few arbitrary-decision-making "C"ourts WORDS (local, state, federal take your pick). Let's have a conversation about both the "A"ccountability WORD and the "R"esponsibility WORD - all around - not just in the Black community. Let's be clear Elisabeth, your tears over our use of the word nigger, in whatever form, among ourselves has absolutely no bearing at all on any kind of "moving forward."

And Sherri Shepherd, Don Lemon on CNN might think Rev. Jackson got a pass for using this "racist" word, particularly in light of the mock funeral and burial (more an obtuse display of patriarchy, than any racist hypocrisy in my book), but you know damn well he was using the word the same way you said you use it.

Inherent racism betrays itself often in the language and attitudes of white privilege, much like internalized white racism turned self-hatred manifests itself in the shaming, blaming and looking down of noses readily perpetrated by some Blacks against their own (Adolph Caesar's, Sgt. Waters character in "A Soldier's Story" comes to mind). These two elephants, along with their offspring - pain, fear, anger, disillusionment, disenfranchisement and classism, all sit in the corners of lives in this country bleeding our humanity dry. And no conversation, about if, or why, Blacks should use the "N" WORD, can stop that kind of flow.