Devious Lies and Hard Truths
Not long ago, I wrote and recorded a scathing essay about an article penned by the Orlando Sentinel.
The article was about white mass-shooter John Neumann Jr. The article served to humanize Neumann and it purposefully refrained from calling him a “mass shooter,” “murder,” “thug,” or even “criminal”.
The damn article doesn’t even tell you Neumann murdered 5 people; you have to click one of the links or scroll past the written article before you read those details. My criticism was not only targeted toward that article in specific, but also the white supremacist media in general.
One might think I am outraged by state-sponsored black death and the rubber-stamp travesties that routinely follow anti-black racism.
One might think I am outraged when all levels of the dominant society shows moral relativism and situational ethics.
One might think I simply can’t contain my outrage every time I see the dominant society use the flimsiest of accusations to fanatically justify police murder of black people, and then saying “ho hum” when it sees video footage of white people doing the same crimes they accused black victims of doing and getting slapped on the wrist.
Believe it or not… I’m not outraged at all.
Outrage is made from two emotions.
Anger is one half of outrage.
I don’t have anger, but I certainly have rage.
The other half is surprise.
I don’t have surprise, shock, or amazement.
Show me an adult who is genuinely surprised or shocked by all the white supremacist fuckery, and I’ll show you someone whose head is firmly planted in his or hers own ass.
I don’t have any form of surprise regarding anti-black racism, but that’s not to say I don’t have my own ingredient to mix with rage. I use loathing.
That’s right.
I wasn’t lying when I said:
“I’m usually disgusted to the point where the sheer gravity of my contempt for this racist society prevents any spoken words from escaping.”
I’m all but physically incapable of communicating without using uncompromising brutal honesty. I might not say anything to you (for a time), but you’d be hard-pressed to get me to lie to you.
Whether I am the speaker or listener, my desire for information and clarity outweighs any desire I have for harmony or pleasantness. One of my greatest faults (or virtues) when I was younger was assuming that everyone felt the same way.
Years passed since I first saw the story of Gulliver’s Travels, but one thing about that story that always stuck with me was the Houyhnhnms.
What I find most memorable about the Houyhnhnms is that their philosophy and (more importantly) language is so pure that they do not have a single word for “lie”; they instead must say “to say a thing which is not” to even discuss such a concept.
In fact, they did not speak of such things until Gulliver, a Yahoo, washed up on their shores.
What I am about to write next are facts of life that all in this world know about but few in this world are willing to admit.
As I and others said before, the idea of white supremacy (and by extension black inferiority) is a lie.
The main source of the lies and propaganda of white supremacy is, of course, the mainstream media. All of the mainstream media (and most of the fringe media).
There are many ways of telling the many lies of white supremacy, but all of the lies have the same outcome if believed… the subjugation, disenfranchisement, and eventual death of black people.
Countless lies are needed to support the absurdity of white supremacy, but perhaps the biggest and most insidious one is the idea the system of white supremacy is the chief cause of black misery and oppression.
Or the cousin of such lie that states white supremacy and anti-black racism is some formless spontaneous phenomenon that just “is” and has nothing to do with any conscious desire by individuals to mistreat black people.
While it is true that black people are under the heel of white supremacy, saying that it is the chief cause of black misery and oppression is only a half-truth at best.
Sure, one can say black complicity allows white supremacy to exist. After all despite our degraded tenuous state as black people in a white supremacist world, we still have agency. But even calling out black complicity doesn’t answer the million dollar question:
What is the source of White Supremacy and what is the source of its power?
Everyone already knows the answer whether or not they realize, much less admit it. The system of white supremacy seems abstract at first, but it can be made concrete quite easily.
The system of white supremacy is a series of relations. White supremacist politicians, lawmakers, the mainstream media that protects and hides racists, trolls on social media, they’re related.
White supremacist codes, race soldiers with badges given police powers, white supremacist police unions, they’re related.
White supremacist judges, white supremacist prosecutors and public pretenders, white supremacist jury members, they’re related.
White supremacist think tanks, white supremacist schools, white supremacist principals, white supremacist teachers, white supremacist textbooks and students, they’re all related too.
But where does all this come from? Who made all of this?
The answer:
People!
That’s right, fucking people are the source of white supremacy.
People are the individual parts of this white supremacy society. The people responsible for imposing and defending white supremacy come in all colors, but the undeniable vast majority of said people are white. Full stop.
Do not think for a second that I’m not talking about you simply because you’re not a mouth-frothing bigot that screams “Nigger!” all the time.
I don’t give a damn where you think you are on the political spectrum or what you think you believe.
If you argue up and down about how O.J., Cosby, Nate Parker or whichever black man should rot in prison but don’t know who Ray Tensing, Betty Shelby, Timothy Loehmann, Peter Liang, and Jeronimo Yanez are (much less convict them with the same viciousness), then my problem is with you!
If you lie and say police murders of black folk are tragic mistakes that stem from fear and lack of training instead of calling those crimes opportunistic murders that stem from anti-black racism, then my problem is with you!
If you defend the preservation of white supremacist monuments in the name of history but then tell black folk to stop bringing up history, then my problem is with you!
Speaking of history, if you have any sort of objections against reparations for the American government’s systemic mistreatment of black people, then my problem is with you!
And yes, that includes this guy.
If you say that you sympathize with the plight of black people but then tell the judge as a jury member that the race soldier with a badge should walk free, then my problem is with you!
If you say racism should end then go to the ballot-box and vote for a ridiculously tanned toupeed bigot or a modern-day slave-owner in a pantsuit, then I’m talking about you goddammit!
You see, I am honest with myself, and I am honest about how I feel, what I believe, and why.
Was there ever a time in your life when you could say the same?
I could go and on about the rank-and-file members of white supremacy, but I want to direct this last message to fellow black folk instead. I particularly want to reach the younger black people who haven’t fully internalized the lie of white supremacy.
See, we too must accept hard truths.
The source of white supremacy’s power are the white supremacist banks and corporations. The source of it all is its economy. The only thing that can free you from and defeat an economy that supports white supremacy is an economy that supports black empowerment (white supremacy’s polar opposite).
Understand something:
No one and I mean no one will ever build such an economy other than you.
I am a regular listener of Professor Black Truth. Despite the recent carriage of injustice, he hasn’t said much about the Philandro Castile case. This is of no surprise because he has already said most of what could be said time and time and time again.
However, he did ask a question about recently that struck me. It struck me because I’ve asked myself the same question:
If Philandro Castile had known what was about to happen and was able to take pre-emptive action, could anyone blame him?
We keep finding ourselves in a position where we have to decide to be judged by 12 or carried by 6 every time we’re pulled over by a race soldier cop. We wouldn’t be in such a position if we cultivated the economy necessary to finance a robust legal defense fund that is geared toward protecting black people who defend themselves against police violence.
We cannot outsource our survival, self-defence, justice, or power.
We have to unapologetically take ownership of those things or watch helplessly as we’re gradually murdered, incarcerated, or gentrified off the map.
Having rage and loathing toward white supremacy isn’t enough.
The rage can stay, but our loathing must become vigilance.
Our contempt toward white supremacy must become aggressiveness toward it.
The problem is not that white supremacists do not see us as human, but that white supremacists do not give a fuck about your humanity.
Understand something else: You will never convince these racists to stop hating you, but you can compel them to stop harming you.
However, you will need a power-structure to do so and that starts with an economy. Start a business yourself or support a black business at every opportunity; hell, do both!
We need politicians who only work in our best interests and don’t be fooled by this empty suit. The only constituents politicians respect are Jackson, Grant, and Franklin. We won’t get anywhere trying to beg politicians, but we can certainly buy or lease them.
Lastly, Frederick Douglass was correct when he said:
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Our condition as a people will improve exponentially just by accepting that basic truth and applying it in action.
We’re all we got, but fortunately, we’re all we need.
Written by Basil Benjamin Jr. of Comatose.
Comatose is a weekly series of amusing anecdotes, insightful commentary, and pithy stories. Every week three contributors are featured in short segments. The segments, though often unrelated, are tied together using music and narration to set the scene. Relax and enjoy the ride while listening to topics as varied as love, birthdays, and reciprocity.
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