Maybe I'm wrong and maybe I am too willing to let go of the past but the fact of the matter is I feel a great deal of gratitude towards the people of color in this country who lived in chains, who perished by the lash and the rope; who were beaten, raped, castrated, and set afire while tied to trees so that people like me could grow up in a nation where such conduct is regarded as the evil it truly is; where there are no more "white" & "colored" waiting rooms, water fountains, lunch counters & the like.
I like the idea that I don't have to sit in the back of a bus, can still vote, and see a person who looks like me and understands my story occupy the highest office in the land. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1956 at the height of the Montgomery Bus Boycott "I want future generations to know that those rights and privileges they will enjoy did not come without someone suffering to get those rights." I get it and I like to think I always have.
So I do not have it in me not to nod an acknowledgement of thanks to every elderly person of color I pass by or to smile at every old white person who's path I cross who I know had a hand in breaking down these laws of segregation and nullification. I know I owe and it enrages me to no end to see people of color ingratiate themselves with and speak the same hateful language as those who feel that the horrors of the atrocities I have described have been way overblown and that we should move on from them & allow bygones to be bygones; as though none of it never really happened.
I feel nothing but contemptuous contempt for those lacking in gratitude. It is a cardinal sin in my book and so when I see African Americans spouting the Republican Party/Conservative line I react with the same enraged indignation as one would upon seeing a person drop their pants or their dress in a cemetery and publicly defecate upon the grave of a dead family member. That is precisely what African American/Conservatives are doing to the memories of the honored dead; to those who sacrificed and suffered so much so they could enjoy the rights and privileges they have now.
If you are a black Republican/Conservative today you are using the memories of Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, all of them; as you use a toilet. You are defiling them and that is wrong, it is immoral, and it is evil. The other day a friend of mine was surprised when I told her that I do not like to be so harsh with people like these black Republicans/Conservatives but looking back I realize I misspoke for truth be told I have no problem with being so vicious, contemptuous, and nasty towards my Republican/Conservative fellow citizens of color.
I can understand to a point why some white people will go the Republican/Conservative side because the color of their skin has never been a problem for them. They cannot fully grasp the African American experience in this country because they have not lived in America as African Americans. To argue as some do that they fully understand our situation because they have been discriminated against because they are Jewish, Polish, gay, Italian, etc. is nonsense. That may make them more empathetic in certain cases but empathy and understanding are two vastly different things; they are miles apart for empathy is about feeling whereas understanding is feeling combined with actual experience and so there are just certain things beyond one's grasp unless they have actually lived through it.
One can talk about being Jewish, Polish, gay, Italian, etc., all one wishes; all of these claims for having been reasons for having been the victim of discrimination are valid but add color to the mix and its a whole new ballgame because in this case judgments are made before one has a chance to determine whether or not that person is Jewish, Polish, gay, Italian, etc. One look at a person's dark skin is all it takes for opinions to be instantly formed about that person. That is the difference here and so for an African American to claim that this is not the case is the height of stupidity.
Notice how these black Republican/Conservatives friends will always refer to them and their other so called friends of color as their black friend. Notice also how they will not refer to their other friends who are white as their Jewish friend, their Polish friend, their gay friend, their Italian friend. Why? Because when it comes to African Americans color is first and foremost on their minds.
As such every time a white person says he/she has a black friend that individual is playing the race card because race is the first card they play in thinking about and describing that individual. Color is the first thing they think about; not their nationality, religion, or their sexual orientation; it's their color, period. Yet African American Republicans/Conservatives have brainwashed themselves into actually believing that these kind of people are really their friends.
So again I make zero apologies for calling out these African American Republicans/Conservatives for being the zeroes that they are. If you lack gratitude then there is nothing to recommend you as a person. You're not entitled to be treated with any kind of respect because your attitudes & conduct shows that you have no respect for those who sacrificed so much on your behalf; to at least give you a fighting chance in a country that still to a large extent automatically see's you as an enemy alien in your own land solely because of the dark complexion of your skin.
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