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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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The Democratic National Convention: Referendum on "The Dream" -- Day 1

It is really interesting to see how Barak Obama is being framed by the media and political pundits at this convention.  For me, this demonsrates just how difficult it is to move towad a post racist society.  In spite of so many indicators that validate his success in leading the change so desparately  eeded in thi country, there are continuing questions that ask, "Do we really know this candidate?"

Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy were inspirational last evening.  But the continued commentary remarks about how the voters "don't know Barack Obama or Michelle Obama" are red herrings.  Black people in this country have embarced the very same values of the mainstream since emancipation.  Whether we are struggling for equal education, fair housing, justice in the courts, the freedom to worship, good jobs and upward mobility -- we constantly hear the refrain, "we don't know what they really believe, or what their values are."  These are code words for latent racism.

The reality is that while more Blacks are employed in places where we were once shut out, and more are attending Harvard and Yale and Princeton, and more Blacks are being elected in non-Black majority cties and states -- we go home to segregated family hopes and dreams; we worship separately on Sunday; and we "dream" from a different perspective.  The difference is a legacy of deprivation and a legacy of privilege. 

All of this discomfort is primarily because most white voters haven't reached the point where we "live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character."  So, the Obama's must be elitist, they must be "different" -- they must be inspected more closely, all of their friends and distant associates must be vetted more thoroughly.

Supporting Obama is not transcending race.  It is an attempt to usher in a "post-racist" society.  This does not mean we become color blind.  It means we become more accepting of othes who arrive at the same destinaton from a different origin.  That is the success of the American experiment -- not melting the color or culture out of all of us.