APOLOGY REJECTED! (NOT BLACK ENOUGH IN AMERICA)

By Michael – Louis Ingram, Editor – in – Chief

BASN NEWSROOM  

 

(Editor’s Note: With the recent talk about reparations, we need to revisit the Dick Dastardly duplicity with the re – post of this column from our BASN NEWSROOM archives over nine years ago…)

 

PHILADELPHIA (BASN/www.basnnewsroom.com):

2007-2008 (110th Congress)

H. Res. 194: Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.

“Today represents a milestone in our nation’s efforts to remedy the ills of our past,” said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, (D-Mich.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, on the floor of the House of Representatives.

 

The Cocksucker News Network (CNN), off the heels of its “ground – breaking” diatribe on Negroes, “Black in America,” was so giddy and busy patting itself on the back for getting 13 million people to watch that they seemed to have forgotten to mention one of the most important stories of the past, oh, 150 years.

And before we get started, I’m calling it like see it in the dictionary; “Nigger” — as in lazy, shiftless, ignorant. With that understanding, CNN as “ignorant” definitely qualifies.
From the minstrel faux hip – hop introductions to the wasted dialogue, whatever good intentions the channel might have had (besides selling commercial spots) was jettisoned out the back door (never the front door – you do want us to know our place, don’t you, you muthafuckas!) by the casual omission of this event.

Where were the discussions and resident experts then? Why wasn’t this little item newsworthy?

So we don’t misunderstand each other, I’m not just laying this at the feet of CNN. Every fucking newspaper or radio station across America could’ve had this on its front page or trumpeted this through the airwaves; but then McCain would’ve been bumped before flip – flopping again; Obama would’ve been tongue – tied (Damn, y’all – can’t you wait until I get elected before y’all start some stuff?) and people would have to honestly – forthrightly — talk about race in this country.

But that wasn’t happening here.

 

 

If you had C – Span, and were watching when it actually happened, the room was sparse, and the tone was far from solemn. No fireworks here – just an ass fuck a dab of AstroLube short of ejaculation.

African – Americans were given a formal apology for slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by the U.S. House of Representatives, acting on a resolution spearheaded by Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen and over 100 co – sponsors.

Five states: Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia (which was the Cradle of the Confederacy and had more recorded numbers of slaves than any other state) have previously issued “apologies” for slavery; but those statements were more like, “Well, we know we deliberately fucked your lives up.

“We purposely broke up your families while conditioning you into believing you were inferior, knowing if conditions were reversed, we couldn’t take half the shit we did to you (especially since we enjoyed it so much and felt justified in doing it!); but, you know — we wasn’t going out in that hot sun to pick that cotton!

 

 

“For free…

“And we are fearful that one day you will rise up and try to get some payback for what our ancestors did.

“Why the fuck do you think we invested all this time and trouble to maintain a permanent underclass? We didn’t just kill and co – opt the Black Panthers, SNCC, Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, Marcus, Fannie Lou and Sojourner for practice until we got it right!

“It’s the Truth! We were lowlifes for that; but, we feel really bad about what happened.”

 

 

So if we take this tack, I can see where it wouldn’t have been that big a deal since they’ve “been there – done that” in the aforementioned locations.

But that leaves 45 other states where it would be – if they knew.

In New York, the Daily News offered a few paragraphs on its Editorial page, under the heading, “A Very Sorry Apology,” chastising the media for its lack of interest.

Quoth the News:

“It should have been a monumental moment for reflecting on the national soul, but it wasn’t; the House of Representatives managed to cheapen a resolution seeking to begin addressing the great American sins of slavery and segregation.

“The House – the People’s House – actually apologized for centuries of oppression to African – Americans. Bet you didn’t know that, did you? There’s no reason you would know. Congress demeaned the making of history. By treating an apology for slavery as if it were the renaming of a post office; with as little solemnity and interest.”

Well, the only thing sorrier than that editorial was the fact it wasn’t on your fucking front page, either!

How about the Washington Post or the New York Times? These leaders of liberal lip – service – so quiet, you can hear a rat pissin’ on cotton!

Or, for that matter, any other major daily, weekly or monthly newspaper’s front page across this country.

The same media beast that howls with delight when Brittney Spears flashes her crotch or Paris Hilton makes money off of being a walking blond joke, could offer nary a grunt when presented with real news, pertaining to not just Black folks, but all Americans.

CNN’s commercials would tell you otherwise. So would MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, Headline News, Countdown, first down, second down – who gives a fuck?
And don’t think we’ve forgotten the so – called Black Press, either; we’ll get back to you, BET and friends…

The reality is all this mental masturbation done on mass media’s version of the down – low was to obfuscate, obliterate and eradicate the notion of reparations.
You know, “like I acknowledge my ancestors did some Dick Dastardly shit to you people – but I ain’t giving you one muthafuckin’ dime.”

The legal ramifications of such an issue are on simmer and will come to boil in the near future, with or without acquiescence from the government because the same 24/7/365 beast that feeds by the nanosecond is also under the same eye in which it hunts its prey; itself fearful of becoming fresh road kill along the information superhighway.

Ironically, Cohen, whose district’s population is overwhelmingly African – American (Memphis) did not include reparations in the resolution; it does mention “rectifying the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against Jim Crow.”
Never mind that B. S. and doubletalk – let’s do reparations; cut the muthafuckin’ check -then we’ll talk.

It’s very easy to feign contrition after the fact.

 

 

 

I’m Sorry…

The American government, through Congress, has formally apologized to Japanese-Americans (the Nisei) for their internment during World War II, awarding every survivor and their kin $20,000 each.

They also apologized to native Hawaiians and their kin for overthrowing their kingdom in 1893.

On July 1, 2008, Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper used its country’s Day of Independence to offer a formal apology to its native (First Nations) people for generations of injustices through destroying their culture by “killing the Indian inside their children”.

Damn, cousin – just like Black folks here. Everybody sing, “It’s a small world after all…”
Earlier this year, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized in Parliament to all Australian aborigines for what he called for laws and policies that “inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss”.

According to BBC News, Rudd, in his oration offering chilling comparison to African – Americans during slavery, singled out the “Stolen Generations” of thousands of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families.

 

 

 

As noble a gesture as it seemed our Brothers Down Under weren’t doing a walkabout on this stuff. They knew what time it was when Noel Pearson, an aboriginal leader, told the Australian newspaper, “Black fellas will get the words; White fellas will keep the money.”

To be continued…

 

Always outnumbered…never outgunned.

basneditor@basnnewsroom.com

Copyright (c) 2010, 2019 Michael – Louis Ingram all rights reserved.