Martin Luther King Jr Holiday 2009 - Focus On The "Civil Rights Violations" WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

This year's Martin Luther King Jr National Holiday will be a special one for most African-Americans. On the day after the nation will inaugurate its first Black president. While I share in the joy of this advancement for this nation which has voted for a man based on his character rather than against him because of his color I am not able to join in on the festive mood because there are too many things that have shifted but ultimately gone unchanged since the time of Martin Luther King Jr as it relates to the members of the Black community having secured our civil rights.

When Dr King walked the Earth a Black man could be killed or assaulted and there was a high degree of doubt that his killer or assailant would ever be punished for the violation of the Black victim's civil rights.

In the 1950's era America this assailant who walked away with impunity for his actions was likely a White racist male living in the South. In this same era I heard reports which noted about how after sundown a Black person walking down the street of a particular county in Metro Atlanta that I have in mind had better been wearing a work uniform to serve as direct proof of his purposes for being there as told to the enforcers of the streets - the police.

In the modern era of America this assailant who walks away with impunity for his actions, mostly because he has those who might "drop a dime on him" are fearful of saying anything is likely a BLACK MAN. The enforcers of the streets to which fear and deference had better been shown is not a racist police man but instead a thug who is looking for a quick score who now patrols these same streets. Indeed times have changed.

The common denominator in both eras is that Black people are being killed at elevated rates but the system of justice, as manipulated by various operatives, does not result in justice being served as proof of the equal dignity that this person has.

An inspection of the Civil Rights Movement shows the vast differences in responses to these assaults as such.

Civil Rights Movement circa 1964 was 'Sick and Tired' of being "Sick and Tired"! They saw the schemes of those who threatened their justice. They formed a strategic program to force the GOVERNMENT to add penalties to be applied to anyone who dared assault or kill a Black people. The movement also realized that a law is but words printed upon pages of a dusty law book IF the government did not go out and actively ENFORCE these laws in a color blind manner. They rooted out racist police men and the policies that allowed them cover to act upon their sentiments on race.

Clearly the Civil Rights Movement circa 1964 was a movement that asked for THE SAME rights that all Americans are due be extended to Black people. The movement was honorable and just. It focused primarily hon having AMERICA TO CHANGE.

As a person who is a voracious consumer of the news I am able to make note of patterns that occur right before my eyes per my sampling of information and my willingness to make honest assessments of the data that I see. I fail to see the value of "defending" the actors that are producing certain results that fall short of our racial goals. Redirecting their behavior using ridiculous concepts such as "derivative behavior" does nothing to bring forth a SOLUTION. It only assists in bolstering one's coping skills. The notion that "you did not assault this Black man out of your own volition - society channeled you into a corner so that this was a likely outcome for ending his life and directing you to prison - I forgive you" is not a rational line of thinking.

I hate when people produce "straw men" so that they can set them up and tear them down so I must ask - Is the scenario that I have painted above not the FUNCTIONAL case for many people who claim to be speaking for the little people who get disproportionally locked up?

The Civil Rights Movement circa 2009 has lost its way!! It is now a 100% political and ideological machine.

A few days ago I read the letters that were appended to the record for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder senate confirmation. The usual suspects chimed in - NAACP, Leadership Council On Civil Rights, People For The America Way. All of them had GLOWING references to Mr. Holder. Fair enough. This is their right.

The substantive comparison is only made if an when a more conservative nominee is made to a Republican president. At this time, indeed, the same groups would be filing letters of comment upon the candidate. Likewise the references would likely be negative.

I have no doubt that 95% of Black people would go along with the assessments that these organizations have cast - positive for the liberals, critical of the conservatives. The real question is, however: What is the biggest threat to Black people per what the actual numbers bear out?

Using the winds from these Civil Rights organizations we would believe that CONSERVATIVE public officials are the biggest threat to the Civil Rights of Black people. This is only because they have been allowed to define what "civil rights" are. To them "civil rights" are that which government, corporations and racist White folks do to trample upon the life, liberty and happiness of Black people.

This ideological bigotry ultimately renders these same people totally USELESS in the fight against that which can be proven to be the biggest threat to Black people in 2009.

I don't blame these operatives. They are only doing what the Black community is allowing them to get away with.
As our people suffer as disproportionate victims of crime and to have the fear that marinates within the community,
these operatives work diligently to reframe the argument and focus so that they are able to turn the desperate
situation that our people face into some externally focused movement in which they and others who are in alignment
suffer no scrutiny for the results because they have towed the line.