From The Final Call Newspaper

Divided Democracy: The Volatile Trump Era Opens With Anger Alongside Insults And Division

By Barrington M. Salmon -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Jan 24, 2017 - 6:58:23 PM



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Demonstrators torch a car during the demonstration in downtown Washington, Jan. 20, during the inauguration of President Donald Trump. (R) Protesters stand on cars during a demonstration after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Jan. 20, in Washington.


WASHINGTON—It wasn’t hard to spot Trump supporters on the morning and afternoon of the presidential inauguration because of their headgear.


Most were easily identifiable by their bright red baseball caps emblazoned with the mantra of the man who defied political convention to become the 45th president of the United States—“Make America Great Again.” Other supporters wore red coats and hats and still others cloaked themselves with large American flags, socks, eyeglasses, shorts, bandanas and other paraphernalia.
                    


President Donald J. Trump


Under cloudy, grey and rainy skies, Trump supporters walked around with a certain cockiness and an air of elation. One of those people was Patricia Nana, a West Palm Beach, Fla., resident.

“I was a supporter even before Donald Trump ran for office,” said Ms. Nana, a pharmacist who wore a navy blue woolen Trump snow cap. “I’m a first-generation immigrant, and he’s third-generation. He understands how to fix America. I’m in health care and drug use is out of control. We need law and order. He will put America on the right path. He wants people to have culture, make them work hard.”
Ms. Nana, who hails from West Africa, didn’t see any contradiction with a Black woman supporting a man who insulted, demeaned and belittled Blacks, people of color, immigrants, women and others in a cynical and calculated plan to secure the White vote. She is also one of the few Blacks aligned with the new president.

Mr. Trump tapped into the pain and anxiety of White Americans caused by economic dislocation, the hollowing out of the middle class and a rapidly changing workplace but he also exploited White racial resentment.

He surprised and offended Americans when someone leaked a conversation between himself and former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. He bragged about being able to grab women’s private parts and getting away with it because he’s a celebrity. Critics excoriated him and there was the thought that he could never win the presidential election but he defied political wisdom and won anyway.

Mr. Trump, a New York-based real estate business mogul, began an improbable campaign for the nation’s highest office more than 18 months ago. Along the way, he managed to alienate large swathes of Blacks, Muslims, Latinos, Millennials, Independents and others. He has faced a firestorm of criticism for his coarseness, his sexist behavior and rhetoric, his unwillingness to denounce the Neo-Nazis, Klan members and organizations who support him and his racial dog whistles.



A crowd gathers to protest and burn fl ags in Pioneer Courthouse Square following Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, Jan. 20, in Portland, Ore. Police in Portland used incendiary devices and tear gas to disperse a crowd of people protesting President Trump. Authorities said some people in the crowd—that at one point numbered in the thousands—threw rocks, bottles, fl ares and "unknown liquid" at offi cers. Photos: AP/Wide World photos

Even as Trump supporters cheered his elevation to the presidency, a multitude of protestors staged vocal and animated protests against the new president and what they regard as his dangerous and divisive policies, his un-presidential behavior and the danger he poses to America and the world.

Organizers of the protests said more than 45,000 people took part in the inauguration day demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators showed up the next day.

Throughout inauguration day, an air of tension hung in the air, illustrating the friction and hostility that still exists between Trump opponents and those who support him. A number of people who voted for Trump expressed annoyance and frustration with the fact that Trump opponents won’t just accept that their guy won.

Security was extremely tight as befitted the occasion, with a heavy presence from members of the District of Columbia’s 29 police agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Guard under high alert. Camouflaged Humvees, police cars and other law enforcement vehicles were stationed at strategic street corners and helicopters clattered noisily as they zoomed around overhead.

Throngs of protestors stood on the sidewalk across from the National Archives on 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue chanting their disapproval of Mr. Trump, and by their body language and other methods illustrated their disapproval. The loud, raucous and robust outbursts mixed with sometimes sharp verbal exchanges between demonstrators who clashed with Trump supporters as each tossed invectives and sharp words at each other. These are signs of the partisan rancor that has gripped the country.

Then there was the pepper-spray, the broken windows and the running battles between police and some black-clad demonstrators and some 200 arrests made. The protestors manned some checkpoints leading to the inauguration and vocally expressed their disdain for the incoming president. These run-ins were captured live by the media and beamed around the globe.


Demonstrators sit at the top of a limousine with the windows broken during the demonstration downtown Washington, Jan. 20, during the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Organizers of the main protest held court on a large stage where speakers disparaged Mr. Trump, decried his policies and promised to oppose him at every turn. Groups of protestors stood holding placards and posters, others sat on the ground, several dozen people sat on the base of the Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock statue and others walked around with posters. Among the statements: “Hate Never Made Anyone Great;” “Trump is Not My President;” “The American Dream is Something No Wall Can Contain”; “From Russia with Love”; “Set the Clock Back 300 Years” and “Trump is the Symptom, Capitalism is the Disease, Socialism is the Cure.” 

“You know what inspires me? It’s seeing all of you out here,” said Nefer Freeman, a host on WPFW, 89.3 FM. “This rightwing, fascist-oriented person has mobilized us. People out here seem to be clear that Trump isn’t fundamentally the problem. The problem isn’t Trump or (Hillary) Clinton, it’s the system.”

“Democrats are talking about a peaceful transition. What we have are two factions within the campaigns of our enemies who disagree with each other. We’ve got to be clear about who and what we face. We had austerity and increased surveillance under Obama. We have to mobilize and we must be organized. We have to build infrastructure as well as instruments of our survival and defense. When the people are under attack, we have to stand up and fight back. Some people thought slavery would never end, but it did. We must resist and fight and build and fight. Through collectives, we are creating the world we want to see.”

Leslie Mittelberg and her daughter-in-law Nuvia Nevarez traveled cross-country from Oregon and Arizona respectively, to stand on the frontlines of protests against President Donald Trump. On a day usually filled with celebration, anticipation and hope for the future, the pair reflected the anxiety, frustration and angst of a segment of the American populace vehemently opposed to Mr. Trump.

“I’m here representing the people who feel unsafe,” said Ms. Nevarez, a teacher, who works with undocumented immigrants in Arizona. “I’m concerned about the defunding of social programs and schools and the even bigger wage and income gap between rich and poor. I’m disappointed that Trump chose Betsy Devos. I see an increase in the attacks on public schools and a focus on school choice and vouchers.”

Mrs. Devos is a Michigan billionaire whose children never attended public schools, who has no professional experience in public schools but is an avid advocate of the privatization of public schools and a vocal supporter of the school voucher system.  Critics say she was chosen by Trump because she’s a wealthy political donor. He says he chose her to be a “disruptor.”
Ms. Mittelberg, who carried a poster that stated, “Not a Legitimate President,” shook her head and looked pained when asked if she’s surprised Mr. Trump won the White House.

“I’m stunned that he got in. It wasn’t even on my radar,” said Ms. Mittelberg, who was in Washington to attend the Women’s March scheduled to take place on Jan. 21. “He’s a foul human being. I don’t think he’ll last four years. He’ll be impeached.”
                    


Tape closes off broken windows at businesses in Northwest Washington, Jan. 20, after a confrontation with protestors blocks from Donald Trump's inauguration. Photos: AP/Wide World photos


“African countries are scared shitless. They will be a lot of global suffering,” she said.

The rally and women’s march were organized to protest Mr. Trump, repudiate his policies and the direction he intends to take the country. The march proclaimed women’s rights and drew between 500,000 and 750,000 men, women and children to the Nation’s Capital. Millions more demonstrators gathered in 600 cities.
Mr. Trump takes control of the White House at a time when politics have become increasingly polarized.

But historians struggle to cite a precedent for a new president who is both beneficiary and target of such powerful and rising grassroots movements.

“It’s hard for anyone to say when we’re at a pivotal point, but I think these may be seismic shifts,” Timothy Naftali, an historian at New York University and the founding director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, said in an interview with USA Today. “We thought there was an era of new politics because of the role Trump played in the Republican Party, but the new politics may not just be of the right. We may be seeing a new politics in the center and the left.”

Mr. Trump, the thrice married, serial philanderer and accused sexual predator, has promised and is in the midst of shaking up the political landscape. Although he is a few days into his tenure, a chorus of critics contend that the U.S. is on the wrong path.

Trump loyalist Neil Arnott strenuously disagreed.

“I’m a big-time Trump supporter. Although he isn’t really a conservative, I support his values,” said Mr. Arnott, a Vietnam vet who served 25 years in the US Air Force. “I believe in a hands-off government except for the military, the police or services to people such as fire services. As for Obamacare, we should privatize medicine and people can go to Canada if they need medications.”

The Florida resident said he hopes Mr. Trump will secure America’s borders stop immigration from South America and block the entry of Syrians into the country.
“It’s easy to bring back coal miners’ jobs and those in the Rust Belt,” he insisted. He anticipates that Mr. Trump will scuttle what he described as “excessive regulation” and free up businesses.

There is one promise of deregulation that Mr. Arnott said worries him.
“I remember the smog in Beijing and Los Angeles. That makes me a little conflicted about deregulating the EPA,” he said.

Longtime activist Phil Wilayto, publisher of The Virginia Defender and a leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition, said, “We’re not afraid and we’re not intimidated. These protestors are strong, angry and they’re young. What’s missing is, ‘what’s our program?’ We need jobs or guaranteed incomes for all. Healthcare for all and free education. We must appeal to workers who feel left out. Like coal workers and those in the Rust Belt.”

Mr. Wilayto said he strongly advocates no deportations of undocumented immigrants, reparations for Blacks, protection of women’s reproductive rights and transgender and others who are in the LBGTQ communities.

In the Trump era, he said, those opposed to the new president need to build a strong united front, build coalitions, deepen ties of solidarity and do the hard work of bridging the chasms between class and race.

Queens, New York resident Katrina Garcia agreed.

“We have to take matters into our own hands,” said Ms. Garcia, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and community organizer. “We can’t trust politicians. We have already learned the hard way. President Obama’s election was symbolic and he got a pass on issues of justice. He deported more undocumented immigrants than most recent presidents and came in with ‘si se puede.’ ”

“We were not given real options. The Democratic Party doesn’t represent us. I’m not crying over Hillary Clinton. I’m not crying over Trump. We need economic, political and social rights. The majority of the people don’t support Trump. Millions of Americans are not able to vote and their rights—for felons and the undocumented—have been taken away. People thought we’d get real change but we’re dealing with the consequences of our political system and the betrayal of the Democratic Party.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

  

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan: A Year End Interview For 2016 And Looking Ahead At 2017

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Jan 3, 2017 - 1:47:17 PM

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Richard Muhammad (FCN):  As-Salaam Alaikum. I’m Richard B. Muhammad, editor in chief of The Final Call Newspaper.  We are pleased to have our founder, publisher and the National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, with us for a year-end 2016 and looking ahead at 2017 interview.

Brother Minister as always we are pleased and honored to have any opportunity to speak with you and to hear words of insight, analysis and guidance—but especially as we go into the New Year. I thank you personally and I thank you on behalf of our staff, our readers and the F.O.I. (Fruit of Islam) who take this newspaper across America.

On January 20, 2017 a major change is scheduled to take place in America with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States.  What does this change portend for the United States, the world and Black America? 

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (HMLF):  First let me personally thank you Brother Richard, your staff and all of those who take this paper in every part of the United States of America and even in other parts of the world.  Thank you for your service, your stellar service, in the year 2016.

We thank Allah for bringing us to this point safely through this year and we pray that Allah will be gracious and merciful to us and even make 2017 a more successful year in expanding the readership and the influence of the wonderful messages that are in this unique newspaper.

On January 20, 2017 there will be a change of the guard.  Many, many Black, Brown and Native people are worried over what may come from a Trump presidency.  Some Caucasian people are upset but many more see hope in Donald Trump, who has already broken all of the norms of what presidents say and how they say it, what they do and how they do it.  He is a huge question mark in the eyes and minds not only of many inside America but people who rely on America throughout the earth are concerned about what his presidency will bring.

We take this approach: Nothing happens but by the permissive or active Will of God.  Certainly the American people, 64 million of them, voted for Mrs. Clinton.  But Mr. Trump took the presidency and shocked the media, shocked the political pundits and shocked capitals around the world.  So what happened is from a power bigger than the powers that usually control.  We happened to see it as a possible lull, as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, predicted before the storm.  But his presidency is not going to avoid the storm and therein lies the great problem and question that his administration faces in the upcoming years of his tenure in office.

FCN:  Brother Minister you mentioned of course the extreme level of disappointment certainly within Black America.  At the State of the Black World Conference, maybe a month or so ago, you talked about what this new political reality in the U.S. means for a new reality for Black people.  Can you speak a little bit to how Black folks should consider what is happening in the country; in particular in light of what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us?

HMLF:  As you may recall in that lecture and in other lectures in the time of the election I said that Mr. Trump is a wind that is blowing on the dry bones in this valley.  We have found it exceedingly difficult to unite as a people to confront the impediments in the pathway of our progress toward true freedom, justice and equality.  So we like the dry bones are in this valley and we have lost hope that we would ever unite.  And the words of the first lady of the United States of America, Mrs. Michelle Obama, in her interview with Oprah Winfrey she expressed a sense of hopelessness.

First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama

Hopeless why?  Because the thing that she, and we, and her husband, our people trusted to keep a path open of inclusion of progress for some in an administration governed by Mrs. Clinton is gone now.  But this that has happened we believe is the Will of God.  For when the Son of Man, speaking to the dry bones could not produce the unity that he desired, he was told by God to prophecy unto the winds and the winds blew on those bones and ultimately they stood up an exceedingly great army.

Donald Trump, his administration, their thoughts, their attitude and the attitude of many Whites that feel liberated by the advent of Mr. Trump—that attitude will begin to manifest greater pain and hurt for our people.  No matter what he may try to do for us; an attitude has been brought to the surface by his candidacy and is one that White people have felt a loss in these last years, loss of their position of supremacy.  Now there’s a sentiment growing; they have to put the Black, the Brown, the Red back in a place that they have cut out for us.  But God has in mind a better place for us but that can’t happen under a so-called integrated pathway; it can only happen when we are united and desire a land and a government of our own where we can be free, justified and equal.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

So Mr. Trump is a part of that wind and his way will signal other winds to blow on the bones.  But in the end he will probably be the best news for the future of a united Black people by the attitude that is taken toward our rise.

FCN:  Brother Minister I think you may have answered this question but if you would, I would like to explore it just a little more, maybe have you expand on it just a little more.  Eight-years-ago we saw President Obama come into office with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, positive energy and hope. He was able to appeal across racial, age and gender lines.  He campaigned on the theme ‘Change We Can Believe In.’  Mr. Trump—of course—a totally different even divisive message ‘Make America Great Again’ which most Blacks saw as heralding back to the bad old days.  In that eight-year period what happened that has had such impact, what one person called a white lash?  What happened in the last eight years?

HMLF:  Why would there be a white lash?  Most of us have not understood the nature of the people in whose hands we have been for the last 460 years.  We have fallen in love with our open enemy because we have hope that one day they will receive us as an equal or treat us as an equal.  And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to us that is not going to happen.  Any kind of unity with our former slave masters and their children has to be on their terms and not on ours.  Otherwise their power and their arms and their will, will be against our rise as it always has been.

So now the white lash is based upon the nature that they were made to rule and to rule for a specific period of time which is now up.  So the darker people of the earth are challenging the rule of Whites over them.  And that challenge is coming up in the rise of our people and our desire for justice, our desire for equity and our desire for greater freedom, greater equality of opportunity. So our desire for all these things that should come to us, and it looked like in the advent of the presidency of  Barack Obama we were on the way to achieve more of that.  But after eight years in office the lullaby of what he represented is now leading to a rude awakening and White people are now lashing out because making America Great Again to many means Make America White Again. 

‘Bring back White Power, bring back this idea that no one is better than we and we are better than all.’  So this wind will blow on Black people from every direction to force us to come to the realization that we cannot get along in peace with this people after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment ever accorded to a human being.  This is going to pick up with greater force, these winds, and so the bones will ultimately be forced to come together.

And when they see this mask of civility taken off and now you see an enemy that hates our shadow.  And like Abraham Lincoln said, ‘you suffer from being here with us and we suffer from your presence among us.’  This is going to come to a head and the Will of God will be carried out which is that the Black and the Brown and the Red we must go free in a land of our own; not under White supremacy but ruled under our own wisdom, knowledge, understanding and the guidance of God.

FCN:  Brother Minister thank you. I can really just go and explore more and more, the answer to that question was so magnificent. But I’m going to try and contain myself and move forward with another question. We just saw recently in Fort Worth, Texas, a Black mother manhandled by a White police officer.  She and her daughters were arrested after she called 911 because a White man had allegedly choked her son.  She was a victim yet she ended up victimized.  We saw a mistrial in the trial of officer Michael Slager accused in the shooting death of Walter Scott in South Carolina. We saw no charges in the killing of Keith Lamont Scott by police in Charlotte, North Carolina.  We have seen other instances where Black men and women were shot and killed by police yet nothing happened; the officers were not charged.  Without justice, but with these continued assaults and loss of life, where do you see things headed in this country?

HMLF:  If wisdom does not prevail we’re headed for revolution.  Black people can’t take much more of this kind of treatment.  And there are Whites in this nation that are angry with their government.  Mr. Trump has successfully destroyed the influence of the media which has been used by corporate powers that control the media to set up or sit down whomsoever they please.  That power has been broken. 

And now the media and its acceptance is probably, according to one pundit, lower than the esteem afforded to members of Congress which has teetered at 14 percent down to as low as nine percent—and the media is below that.  So all the forces that can be used to produce trends or curtail trends—now those forces have been broken.

Mr. Trump is the first president that has the ability to change the ultimate course of American politics; that is national and foreign policy.  But he, if he yields more to Israel in the quest of  Israel to continue settlements and to deny Palestinians their right of self-determination in a nation of their own, there will be a conflagration in the Middle East which is going to bring China, Russia and every nation into the War of Armageddon.

This is the storm that Elijah Muhammad said America is going to face and couple that with divine judgment that has entered America because of her consistent mistreatment of Black people.  Now that they have no jobs for us and they can’t make jobs for us, the policy then is to find a way to get rid of as many of us as they can.  And this is kindling a greater anger in the God who is present today to bring us into the sphere of freedom and justice.  The battle is His and He is able to fight it and none can hinder him.

So the forces of nature; rain, hail, snow, earthquakes, wind, sleet, heat, cold—all of this is being brought to bear.  Famine is coming to America like no nation has ever seen in fulfilling the prophecies of Jesus and other prophets of both the Bible and Holy Qur’an.  This is a serious time.  So if Mr. Trump, who loves to make a deal, is a wise leader and sees the handwriting on the wall which it was in the time of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar: ‘Your kingdom has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.’ What is the way out?  What will give America a greater extension of time?  What will cause some of these forces of judgment to be diminished and even put away for a while?  It is giving us justice; letting us go and giving us a final settlement for what we have done to make America great; to make her rich and powerful and fight in all her wars to keep her in that position even though we have not advanced as a people to real freedom with land and opportunity to build a nation of our own.
Well America, the choice is yours.

Mr. Trump can facilitate that separation once he sees that the war is right at our door and once he sees that the calamities are increasing, let’s make a deal.  And the deal is what it was with Moses—let us go and give us a good send-off and God will remove the clouds of war that are hanging over our heads and remove the judgment and delay it and give America time again.  Never to be as great as she once was, but it’s not greatness, it is to exist as a nation.  The choice is America’s. The choice is Mr. Trump’s, the choice is his government’s to make.  Whatever choice they make nothing, nothing will turn the Will of God and make God’s Will of non-effect.

May God bless us in the New Year to understand more of God’s Will and may Allah bless us to come together with all of the scholarship that we have been blessed to gain in America; all of the wealth that we have been able to accumulate and now turn that toward self in our own development.  Otherwise we’re going to suffer great, great pain as these winds blow from the four corners of the earth.

FCN:  Brother Minister these challenges and losses that Black folks suffered in 2016 are one side of our experience.  But on the other side there was I think what could be called a banner-year for the Reawakening of the Black Athlete, notably Colin Kaepernick with his protest against police violence, but others were part of that.  What does this reawakening or this growing into consciousness among athletes and even celebrities mean?  Certainly we’ve seen you talk with brothers like The Game, Snoop and others and we have seen them speak, like Killer Mike, speak to the injustice and the need for justice for our people.

HMLF:  What it does Brother Editor it brings us into a clash with the forces that want to keep things as they are or put them back where they were where White supremacists will be more comfortable with our presence.  That’s not going to happen.  Our people are not going back to that; they’re not going to accept that.  So the more we awaken, the more we challenge the powers that have kept us down, the more we challenge those powers it brings great pain and suffering to us.  These are the winds that are blowing now that will force America to make a decision.  What shall we do with 40 million to 50 million Blacks?  What shall we do with 50 million Hispanics?  What shall we do with five or six or eight million Native Americans?  What shall we do?  You can’t kill us all.  So at some point the art of the deal will have to come to the table.  And no cowardly Negro who doesn’t know what justice looks like can be at a table negotiating for us.

FCN: Even as you were talking about us not understanding the nature of these people whose hands we have been in, I was thinking, “My God what does it take for a people who have suffered like this to come to that ultimate conclusion?”  Is it almost only utter destruction that will make us recognize the truth?

HMLF:  Yes. That’s why the Scripture says those who did not heed the call of Moses and Aaron God cause them to be bitten by fiery serpents which the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said are angry White people.  So all Colin Kaepernick and all the brothers that are standing up and Black Lives Matter pushing up, all of this is bringing about anger to the forces that have controlled us but now see how difficult it’s going to be.  So they have to either beat us all the way down and kill us or let us go.  There’s no other alternative because they can’t stop the rise, they can’t stop the awakening—they can’t.

May Allah bless us.  Thank you brother.  As-Salaam Alaikum.

FCN:  Walaikum Salaam. Thank you, sir.

The Psychological Dimensions of Plantation Politics

by William P. Muhammad

Here's a secret the white establishment will never tell you in the public: So-called American Negroes who attack and disparage their own, in order to seek social, political or economic favor, are regarded as nothing more than tools to be wielded by their handlers. By default, Blacks who eagerly disgrace themselves, out of hunger for a perceived benefit by doing so, have automatically disqualified themselves from such benefits, both morally and ethically.

Not only because they have sold their souls for so cheap a price, but also because power does not respect what it bends, Black public figures claiming leadership, at the expense of truth, will never be respected by those to whom they have submitted and compromised their principles.

In light of this reality, it doesn’t take much of an imagination to understand the competitive nature of human beings when faced with scarcity. When access to the mechanisms for survival or prosperity are at stake, and cynically regulated by external forces, the once proud and principled may now find themselves reduced to the status of a beggar, and the once faithful public servant, pimped out like a political prostitute, will ultimately find himself with neither friend nor helper. 

With that said, part of white elite’s centuries’ long war on Black self-determination, Black liberation, and indeed Black personhood, has been a deliberate effort to create the non-threatening and defeated Black male image as a balm to placate white fears and insecurities. Today, modernity’s "approved" image of the Black man, particularly in America, continues to be that of the docile, obedient and emasculated caricature of a faithful retainer and/or longsuffering plantation loyalist or that of the overly eager partisan and mouthpiece for the Liberal or Conservative paradigm.

Such unrealistic, “Gone With the Wind,” interpretations of Black personhood, or apologetics for bicameral politics for that matter, are not only an insult to the memory of our enslaved ancestors, but they also constitute an assault upon the legacy of the Black struggle in the United States.

Should those who endured the terror of lynching, the humiliation of economic exploitation and the intentional undermining of Black progress now become deferential to the white liberal, as they once were to the white conservative?  Emphatically no!

Although the end of Black enslavement allegedly came with the December 6, 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, 151 years later, among both the Jews and the Gentiles of the white elite, a mentality of proprietorship still exists regarding the lives of Black people in America. While this is perhaps understandable, that the white elite prefer to not lose the power they have gained as masters over the land they once conquered, what is indeed unfortunate is the eager willingness of some in Black leadership to collaborate as plantation politicians.

Trauma and the of conditioning Black leaders

            Defined as a noun, trauma means: “a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.” Within this context, many examples of extreme trauma against Black Americans have been officially documented by historians and/or passed on as oral histories among Black families. As a society’s culture is subsequently shaped by geographic, social and psychological factors, the behaviors and interactions of a people among themselves and others is likewise influenced by the same.

            Taking into account the 300 plus years history related to coercive motivation, or motivation by fear, on plantations, underground mines, and the slave breeding-farms of pre-Civil War America, life for millions of enslaved Black men, women and children was to toil under the systematic horrors of violence and terror on a daily basis. An environment where Blacks were legislatively reduced to the status of beasts of the field, the lash, sexual violence and the destruction of the family unit were all used as tools for control. Particularly in the wake of the Haitian Revolution between 1791 and 1804, that gave birth to the world’s first Black republic, the means and methods of suppressing Black resistance to white rule, throughout the Western Hemisphere in general, became more creative, brutal and oppressive. Defining in its wake the nature of relations between Black and white people in Western culture for generations to come, the concept of a Black man saying "no," became an inconceivable affront to white supremacy.

            For enslaved Blacks in the United States, since at least 1555, the new social contract demanded absolute obedience, recognition of the “inherent superiority of whites,” or death and other punitive measures as the consequence for refusing to comply. On the other hand, for Whites, the rule was for Blacks to obey them without question and to recognize the inherent inferiority of their “less than fully human chattel,” who had no legal rights or protections beyond that of being the property of white slave owners until 1865.

            Twelve years after the American Civil War, the Compromise of February 26, 1877, which ended the deadlock between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes in the disputed 1876 elections for the US presidency, federal troops occupying southern states were removed and the protections previously afforded the formerly enslaved Black populations were withdrawn. Opening the doors to a second wave of terrorism, rape, lynching and murder, Blacks were driven from political office, imprisoned in large numbers and returned to the plantations as share-croppers relegated to peonage by racism and heavily weighted state’s rights legislation.

            As the 19th century gave way to the 20th century, the psychology of fear continued to afflict America’s Black populace as many fled north and west seeking refuge. Only to find the cruelty of the white Southerner replaced by the exploitation and deception of the white Northerner, a new social contract of go-along-to-get-along politics and non-economic liberalism, advocated by philanthropic whites and others benefiting from excessive Black consumerism, began to dismantle the concept of industry, entrepreneurship, land ownership and the idea of nationhood among the Black masses.

            Today, like in slavery and Jim Crow yesterday, strong and unapologetic Black leadership is once again feared, condemned and dismissed, and like the house Negro seeking to secure a more comfortable position within the established order, or Judas and his 30 pieces of silver, there is no depth to which the plantation politician will not stoop to seek nearness, favor, and recognition by his modern handlers. Instead of hoping for a good master to inherit the plantation, or lamenting over the bad master who did, Black leadership must now recognize that the day of nation building has arrived and that the era of plantation politics has ended. It's time to do for self, build for self and govern self. After all, such is the responsibility of any free and independent people.