I've Never seen it

We delivered this message at the fifth sunday fellowship for the Augusta District . I was so glad to be in fellowship with Dr. Tribble and his wonderful wife. There are two things the righteous will never have to worry about loneliness and lack. I hope you are blessed at the hearing of this word! Happy Sunday !

Paula,Paula, Paula

Much of the rancor concerning Paula Deen using the word Nigger is misplaced.  Yes I used the word Nigger in a sentence and it looks as ugly as it is. It’s a filthy, nasty word used to channel the emotional subjugation of 400 plus years of slavery as an institution.  Slavery, the one institution that Americans just can’t seem to process as a reality of this our sacred union. When I was growing up I used to hear a song with lyrics that said “and I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free”.  Free, the idea that we all have equal rights and opportunities.  Let’s just stop, the vast majorities of Americans are not free and will never be free.  And if you think the constitution makes you free than ask the state legislature of Texas why were congressional districts redrawn over the last ten years? Answer, to disenfranchise the Latino vote. And the Supreme Court thinks that times are so different than they were 50 years ago that we no longer need law that protect us against voting violations.  Slavery was never abolished it was institutionalized, so you don’t have to use the word Nigger to put people of color and poor people in their place.  Yes I said it poor people are victims as well; of a classism so brutal that the losses from this current recession may not be overcome for at least 50 years. Former middle class Americans are in the same unemployment offices as the people they would have openly called niggers 50 years ago.

                People are mad that Paula Deen used the word Nigger. I’m not mad she said it; I’m mad because we want her to apologize for something she meant to say.  You’re mad that Paula Deen used the word Nigger twenty years ago. I’m mad that she treats her workers like Niggers twenty years later.  It’s easier to address a single act of incivility than to address the systemic incivility of American culture.  Let me make sure I got this right you have a problem with people saying the word Nigger but you’re totally fine with being treated like a nigger?  To have the audacity to be offended by an open expression of an ignorant person is a fool’s error. She is telling you exactly how she feels about people from other races she thinks that people from different races are not human she believes that they are animals.  And Ms. Deen you have the right to feel that way but you do not have the right to treat people in an inhumane manner. Your business practices need to reflect your market reality rather than your racial delusion.

                You don’t have to like that she said it, but the reality is she said it. Now being from Tuscaloosa where the KKK has a parade every year to this day, I can say I like my racism straight up; all killer no filler. If you’re going to be a racist serve it up like whiskey, straight up. What I have a problem with is this smoke and mirrors game that we play with ourselves making the issue the word rather than the institutionalization of the word.  It’s bigger than just having your feelings hurt because somebody used the sacred cow of racism. When your vote is disenfranchised by the redistricting of maps that is the institutionalization of the word Nigger. When you cannot live in certain neighborhoods that is the institutionalization of the word. When there is no fresh produce in a three mile radius that is the institutionalization of the word. When you make up 12 percent of the population at whole but a majority of the prison census; that’s the institutionalization of the word.

                When schools are closed in minority communities first that’s the institutionalization of the word. When men and women are in jail for possession for something that is legal in two states that’s the institutionalization of the word.  When charter schools play shell games with educational funds that’s the institutionalization of the word.  Access to PLUS funds where cut and the black community didn't say a word. The rules for the administration of subsidized loans where changed black folks didn't say a word.  Subsidized loans were stripped for graduate students black folks didn't say a word. The interest rate doubled for student loans, black folks didn't say a word.  But when it is discovered that Paula Deen used the word Nigger you are up in arms?  500 Homicides in Chicago last year where was the outrage?  184 Homicides this year where is the outrage? Again its smoke and mirrors! It’s a distraction as long as you are fine with being treated like you are ignorant than you give systemic approval to be treated as such.  The soft underbelly of African American society is that we still feel as if there are two kinds of black people. Black people and Niggers and as long as the Black people are upwardly mobile and can move away from the Niggers the world is right as rain.  That is a level of hypocrisy that is unpalatable.  

                Every time the disdainful word Nigger is uttered by a person of non-African Descent we have to call Rev. Jackson, Al Sharpton, and have a two hour program on CNN.  Let me be clear I want God to Change the hearts of every racist and prejudice person. Do you hear me???? Change their hearts, change their actions change their ways!  What good is it if Paula Deen never uses the word Nigger again but persists upon treating people of color as Niggers?  What Good is it if you removed the word colored from the water fountain but create schools systems separately for black and white children?  What good is it to remove George Wallace from the Entrance of the University of Alabama, but replace him with legislation that restricts higher education opportunities for people of color?   

                I hope Paula Deen offended you. Offended you so much you sell all that good cookware to me for cheap. I hope Paula Deen Offended you so much she distracts you from Lawsuit that female managers brought against Wal-Mart because they were not being treated fairly. I hope Paula offended you so much that you forget all about the conditions of the workers in the overseas factories that supply your Target. I hope you are offended! I want you offended.  And after you get all of that offense out, ask yourself “what did that offense do?” 

                And when we come down off of our “I got offended” high, take the offense and make change.  If you’re so offended create a scholarship to send one of those black boys that works in Paula’s kitchen to culinary school. If your so offended join the NAACP and tell them to stop marching and burying the word Nigger, and tell them every day a little boy or girl dies in Chicago and a march can’t fix that. Tell the SCLC to take the chains off the doors and be a force for systemic good and not a relic for religiosity. If you’re so offended move back to your communities of color and improve the property value with your presence and your work.

And for Ms. Deen who would rather I dress like a servant at a pre lynching party …. This might hurt a little

1)      Stop wasting my time on the today show playing fake hurt; you are sorry you got caught not sorry you said it! (I would rather watch Kathy and Hoda get drunk than watch you waste my time apologizing )

2)      Your crab cakes are nasty (if I wanted to eat flour I would have ordered a sandwich )

3)      If you are really sorry insure every person who works for you has access to affordable health insurance

4)      You will still be rich after your apology tour is over

5)      Stop saying the word Nigger in the privacy of your home (I know what you do)

6)      If you are really sorry go feed all those homeless people in downtown Savannah

7)      Don’t you dare make mention to hip hop as an excuse to why you say and do what you do

You are old enough to be their grandmother and great grandmother and you were 20 years ago as well

8)      Any good lawyer would have told you to settle the lawsuit my suggestion is pay her whatever she wants

9)      Be a better person

10)   Just like that black man who secures you, I am also to dark to be seen against that board so this is me coming into the light. Would you care to join me?

The following opinions are my own and are by no way a reflection of the views of all mocha flavored people. I thank God for halogen lights so you can see my mahogany skin at night.