DISQUS

How race relations, respect, and tolerance/differences arise and are mediated is enigmatic, complex, and awesome.

As much as I want to psychologize Thomas, I have to respect his right as an individual to make his own way, and hold his own political views and alliances.

Indeed, there were freed black folk back in the days of slavery that advocated slavery, kissed up to money, and were allowed extensive priviledge within that slave, white supremacist society.

It takes all types to make the world go round, however, using democratic mechanisms, and solid arguments I believe that it is possible to convince the majority of humans that way of equality and human liberation is something worth striving for.

What is Hitleresque is lying to the nation's people and then invading other countries that don't present a threat to the nation in any way.

What is Hitleresque is to many (white) US folk believing the shit.

What is not Hitleresque, and is very scary, is that Bush has like one-halve the IQ and political accumen that the evil Hitler had.

At least this last part is a good thing--because Bush's actions have only killed less than half the number of folk Hitler did.

If the folks in the US were stupid enough to believe that folks from Africa were/are in any way 'inferior' to Europeans, then they are stupid enough to fall for Bush's lies over one hundred years later.

To bad the Euro-Americans tend to be slow learners. Maybe with Obama as president he will challenge them/us to be better.

Ahh, alas, the tyranny of low expectations. What can ya do?

On topic--this gig in Denver, on the same day of the year that Dr. King gave one of his most famous speeches, is sure to be incredible. Too bad that I will be stuck on the farm down South here.

Val, my point is that the propensity to be a Tom is rooted in illegitimate hierarchies that are predicated on wealth, race, class, gender, religion, and tradition. My comments transcended mere racial considerations. However, truth be told, with whom and with what one identifies, what one's goals are--these say a lot about folk. And we cannot escape the judgement of our fellow human beings.

I would just say that we should approach our relationships and our goals with respect to both Jesus and Dr. King---as well as Gandi, John Brown, Walter Ruther, Mother Jones and others. Don't know all these names--do a google, educate yourself, expand your horizons.

We need to question these hierarchies--and if they cannot be rationally justified, then we should work to dismantle them and erect something better in their place.

Meritocracy is fine--but we need truely equal opprotunity to compete on a just playing field from the start.

To settle for less is, well, something that a Tom would want.

("Aunt Jemimah don't like Uncle Ben" Does anyone here remember where this line comes from?)

"D" if you want tax cuts, and you feel that super-exploited Americans don't deserve some type of protection from the most rapacious corporations--then, yes, the Republicans do offer you, as an individual, the best opprotunity.

But his is only if you view 'freedom and liberty' in a very selfish, anit-human, and unecological fashion--and if you agree with historical US imperialism.

Opposing labor unions and allowing corporations to super-exploit do not increase your liberty--unless you value the liberty to exploit your fellow human being, your liberty to wage illegal agression against others, and the liberty to despoil the economical systems upon which future generations depend to merely survive.

The independence from 'group-think' is to a degree a pathological delusion. Without common goals and patterns of though--group-think--humans would have already have become extinct as a species.

The civil rights movement was a type of 'group-think'---labor solidarity in the face of wage slavery is a type of 'group-think'.

Philosophy--it's all about asking questions.

You might fancy that you could use a tax break, and you don't own the family of a thug in the hood a dime--but that would merely point up your own ignorance.

Don't fall for the divide and rule patterns of thinking that are pimped by the ruling class, the moder day slavers and colonialists.

Just the fact that the Republcians were cheerleaders for the illegal attack on Iraq (that has killed hundreds of thousands) should tell any thinking, ethical person something.

The rightwing line of thinking cannot survive engaged debate or scupulous scrutiny--and this is why Dr. King could only be taken out by a bullet. The ideas King embraces transcended the petty politicing of the two-headed DEM/REP hydra that is bringing the world to the brink of disaster.

Who's your master?

"Perhaps D believes that the GOP offers the best opportunities for freedom and liberty. Perhaps he does not care. What proof do you have of him being a Tom?"

CAB--sorry, but I believe that people from historically subordinated groups that take the side of the ruling elites with respect to war or policies that exploit and marginalize people are Toms. This crosses racial lines. Someone from a working class background that backs policies that disempower and cause deeper exploitation are Toms.

No, I am not calling D a Tom at all. To his credit, he sees through the 'freedom and liberty' shuck-and-jive--and, he is also very skeptical (or, equally skeptical) of the Democrat Party.

That is to his credit.

Without a full discussion of historical forms of exploitation and imperialism, one cannot discern just how Tom someone really is at any given point in time.

When Cosby attacked and made fun of black folk naming their kids African names he was Tomming, big time.

We all have the capacity to Tom from time-to-time---by dint of the fact that we don't research issues, and we have to ingratiate ourselves toward more powerful economic forces in order to merely survive.

Again, when you have human oppression and hierarchies of privilege you will have Toms.

I admit, I come from the Dr. King anti-war leftwing, populist sector of US politics, and most folks don't take the time to engage in enough philosophical and historical research to escape the US propaganda system--that encompasses 'education', the media, and even entertainment.

Modern wage-slavery is rendered invisible to millions of people by dint of the ruling class sponsored propaganda system. And, historically it takes leaders like Sojourner Truth, Emma Goldman, and Malcom, and Dr. King to help rescue the masses from culturally induced slumber and apathy.

Again, I DON"T put D into the catagory of Tom. First off, I don't know the man enough--and, secondly, I don't see in his comments in this thread that he is down with white supremacy and wage-slavery that is rife in the US A.

D., most don't expect everyone to engage in group think.

However, back in the day there were a portion of slaves that supprted slavery. Word.

These are the types we see today suck'n up to massa, the small priviledged sectors that control the wealth. Turning on people, like Dr. King, that strive for economic and social justice pays well. If you toe the rightwing Republican line you might just get a cushy think-tank position, or a radio show, or another gig where you can help brainwash the slower-thinking among us to support more tax breaks and wage slavery.

There have been Toms in North America since the first colonizing slavers arrived to plunder the place. The point is to be down with real human freedom--not contradictory ideology that is designed to take our eyes off the most important goals.

Well, yes, Democrats are only the 'good cop', leftwing of a US ruling class that exploits the working class in general. Most folk are smart enough to know this---again, Democrats are the leftwing, less savage sector of US corporate political power.

But, I'm say'n--the Republicans simply want to kick subordinated folks in the face, as well as crap all over the environment , etc., etc. These are savage mo-fos.

In the African American/black community there are more than enough sell-outs that are bought-and-paid-for the the savage corproate sector--and you will find this type cheering on Bill Cosby making fun of black folk that name their children African names. Cosby wants black folk to give their children respectable European names--like Tom, Dick, Bill, and Mary.

Yes, these issues and politics are fraught with social class, priviledge, disporortionate allocation of opprotunity, and gender.

The support for Obama has much to do with the man's background, his empathy, and his policies--that don't simply kick subordinate classes in the face in a blatant manner.

But like Reverend Wright said--Obama is a politician, and we have to be on his ass to make him do the right thing. Commonsense.

We are talk'n comparative evil here--most folks aren't total chumps. Always follow the money--to many that have 'escaped the hood' love to preach boot-strappism while the US plutocracy lowers the minimum wage, ships decent jobs overseas where they can super-exploit and pollute with impunity.

Come on! Give us a break. Most of us know what the hell time it is! It is slave revolt time for the folk that haven't been brainwashed into Booker T. boot-lick'en.

Well, King, smartly, did not jump in bed with the Democrat Party--but he is as far the corporate-welfare, kick-the-poor-in-the-face, bomb the brown-people 'conservatism' of the current Republican Party as you can get.

Black Republicans that justify exploitation and imperialism are simply Toms. They are opprotunists and parasitic sell-outs.

Word.

Black folks that climb in bed with corporate wage-slavery and rightwing reactionaries like Rush Limbaugh and Bush are what used to be called Uncle Toms.

King was no Tom, not by a long-shot. King was the 'un-Tom'--and he was critical of capitalist immiseration and imperialist agression. He recognized the limitations of only organizing on a racial justice agenda and set about organizing a poor-folks march on Washington.

Yeah, the fact that Toms in the Republican Party try to claim King's legacy says it all, and on so many levels.

It does matter on a symbolic level in the current political fray whether King was down with the Republican Party back in the day. But, as has been pointed out by other commentators, the presidental race in 1964 with Goldwater saw the rise of racial back-lash on the part of Southern whites and racist whites all over the US.

King was a Republican--yeah, and McCain and his wife Cindy have some Carribean beach-front property they want to sell you in Arizona.

(McCain is the political grandson of Barry Goldwater and the white back-lash--he opposed designating a MLK,Jr. national holiday on several occassions.)

When inflation rises and wages don't keep pace, then this is an back-handed pay-cut.

But fixing the minimum wage indexed to inflation is 'bad'.

The class warfare is on the surface if one has even rudimentary critical thinking skills.

Pat B., in the end-analysis, helps keep screwed-over white working class votings voting against their own economic interests--and this is why he earns millions in the MSM. Of course he is not going to push the economic populism meme too far--he wouldn't have access to all those corporate dollars.

Watching these rightwing white ....cks lionize and apologize the corporate order makes me want to hook them to a plow, and work them twelve hours a day (with breaks and ample water, of course).

The lady is audacious--and the pro-war US apologists for corporate-lead wage slavery are all having a fit. I love it.

This was the first time I heard of this song--and I am thrilled that she perturbed some of the corporate, fake-patriot sheeple by belting out this song when and where she did.

How many of the sheeple that are complaining have spoken out against the US lead terrorism that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqi children?

Again, I like it when the sheeple get nervous--they can't maintain their fierce poise when they have to endure an entirely different point of view, one that is not Wal-Mart/Exxon approved.