[MAPC-discuss] fwd: Should African Americans Wave The Flag?

[MAPC-discuss] fwd: Should African Americans Wave The Flag?

born-digital

email

yes

no

2001-10-29

From www.blackelectorate.com

*********************

Should African Americans Wave The Flag?

By:  Donna J. Warren,
California Green Party
10/23/2001

Black folks riding around with American flags waving from cars. Black
folks thinking maybe racial profiling isn't so bad as long as they're
profiling those evil terrorists, the Arabs and the Muslims.

Is it really OK for Black folks to ride around with American flags?

Is racial profiling now OK when directed to the Arab and Muslim Communities?

Recent polls in the Black community show that 60% of African
Americans are in favor of racial profiling of the Arab/Muslim
community in light of the 911 World Trade bombings. Is racial
profiling, a product of insidious American racism, ever justified?

Timothy McVeigh--male, white, American, veteran, Michigan militia
member, blew up the Oklahoma federal building. America did not
racially profile white Americans.

America did not advocate blowing up the State of Michigan.

The Taliban wants evidence of Osama bin Laden's guilt before they
turn bin Laden over to a court.

No negotiations says Bush. 'When I said no negotiations, I meant no
negotiations. We know he's guilty; turn him over.'

Don't need evidence to find bin Laden guilty. Nothing new to South
Central LA. Most of the 56,775 inmates in California's prisons under
the 3 Strikes Law were convicted with little or no evidence, often on
the word of a police officer, or worse still, sentenced to 25 years
to life because 5, 10, 15 years or more ago the evidence was a
bargained plea. 57% of these prisoners are African American; this in
a state that may be 12% African American. California Courts don't
need evidence to convict.

Simi Valley, 1992, lots of evidence showed 5 white policemen brutally
beating and inflicting permanent damage on a Black motorist. The
evidence was superfluous because a jury thought Stacey Koon and
company were acting in the best interests of the people. Not guilty
on all counts. Don't need evidence to convict white police who beat
and murder Blacks, need a miracle!

The Bill of Rights, that little document which is supposed to govern
how we do business in the United States of America, says a person is
innocent until proven guilty, and that the accused can face his
accuser in a court of law and that the defendant is entitled to a
trial by jury - a jury of his peers.

"Turn him over, turn his cohorts over, turn any hostage they hold
over, destroy all the terrorist camps. ... I told them exactly what
they needed to do. There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We
know he's guilty. Turn him over," said the president selected by the
Supreme Court. "They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our
freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with
each other."

Maybe that's why African Americans wave the flag. Osama bin Laden and
all those terrorist Arabs and Muslims hate our freedoms.

In 1996, Madeleine Albright, then the US secretary of state, was
asked on national television what she felt about the 500,000 Iraqi
children who had died as a result of US economic sanctions. It was a
'very hard choice,' but Albright said, 'all things considered, we
think the price is worth it.'

George Bush the First, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger,
General Colin Powell, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Ronald Reagan,
Elliot Abrams, Gerald Ford, and George Bush the Second have
supported, trained, bankrolled and supplied with arms the murders of
millions in Yugoslavia, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda, Pakistan,
Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, the Congo, South Africa, My Lai, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Vietnam, East Timor, Angola, Cambodia,
Guatemala, Grenada, Libya, Palestine, Afghanistan, and South Central
Los Angeles. U.S. terrorism continues to strike in the States -
infestation of crack cocaine by the CIA, mandatory minimum
sentencing, 3 Strikes, the Prison Industrial Complex, the racist
death penalty, institutionalized racism in education, health care,
social services, housing, employment.

Let's wave our flags for America and stand united with President Bush
in pure presumptuous arrogance because "If you're not with us, you're
against us".

I am an American but until America stops her aggression on my World,
until America humbles herself at the table for peace, and until
America apologizes for slavery, my African American brothers and
sisters will just have to wave that American flag without me.

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil
obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world
have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have
gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience.
. . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the
face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty.
Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of
petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and
robbing the country. That's our problem." Howard Zinn, "Failure to
Quit"

Donna J. Warren is a South Central LA Community Activist and Candidate for
the Green Party Nomination for Lt. Governor of California. She ran in June
2001 as the Green Party Candidate to fill the seat vacated by the death of
Julian Dixon in the 32nd Congressional District.

Monday, October 29, 2001 3:34 PM

[MAPC-discuss] fwd: Should African Americans Wave The Flag?