THE BLACK PAPERS

Racism can be defined as the practice to deny equal opportunities based on race, which hinders a group’s ability to thrive and prosper. Although Whites are outnumbered by people of color internationally speaking (Ball, 1998) they utilize their influence to dominate the lives of non-Whites, particularly Blacks in the United States of America. The information presented is based on the premise that the North American Slave Trade forever altered the way in which African-American people would view themselves and others. This atrocity stifled their ability to progress through self-determination and pride. This would interfere with the way Blacks live, socialize, and patronize one another prior to the Civil Rights movement began when Black people had to band together to fight for the same cause. Unfortunately, Blacks have been unable to maintain a true sense of being. Black people are more disconnected than ever before. As other groups are organizing their neighborhoods by creating schools and businesses, Black folks are focusing on “how best to keep up with White folks” while ignoring the needs of their own community, particularly their children. This dilemma is challenging as Black people from around the world call the United States their home. Many non African-American Blacks assimilate to that of White America feeling no connection to African-Americans. They have no interest in our history and don’t acknowledge the struggles of those before them who have enabled their opportunities for professional and educational growth. Their skewed perception leads them to believe that African-American are to blame for their own oppressive state so they are not interested in the formation of a united front to fight racial discrimination. Many non African-American Black folks are unaware of the laws of racism within the United States if America – Black is Black regardless from which country or island one has arrived. When a racist (judge, doctor, teacher, or neighbor) sees a Black man, he’s not going to say “oh that gentleman is from Jamaica.” He’s going to say “there’s another nigger!” The passive African-American coupled with the ignorant non African-American Black in a White racist society is a cocktail for disaster and the blame for the collapse of a people. For centuries Black people have been observed, analyzed, and experimented upon by White intellectuals. It was the color of one’s skin that granted him/her eligibility as a specimen. William Shockley, who in 1956 won the Nobel Peace Prize in physics, theorized that Blacks were inherently “less intelligent than Whites.” He argued that the government should pay for “less desirables” to be sterilized rather than pay for welfare and other social programs. According to John Hope Franklin (1993) one scholar, Samuel C. Cartwright, compared the learning capacity of an adult Negro to that of a White infant. In the 1994 ”The Bell Curve” written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray caused great controversy as the authors asserted that African-Americans were intellectually inferior to other groups. Finally, In September 2005, Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education, suggested the following on his morning radio show: “But I do know that it’s true if you want to reduce crime, you could – if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every Black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think tricky.” Black people have always been, and will continue to be the scapegoats for all that has gone wrong in the “greatest nation” on earth – even though Whites deny us access to those resources that could interfere with the operation of capitalism at its best. Although the genocide of “aborting every Black baby” has not yet occurred, the symbolic castration of the Black man is a focus of the political social system in the United States. Bennett’s Nazi-like suggestion caused no uproar in the Black community. In fact, Black Women Against Racism and several other grassroots organizations attempted to spearhead a boycott of those advertisers on Bennett’s radio show, but “the head negro in charge” would obstruct their efforts. The increase in foreigners and illegal residents also contributes to the plight of African-Americans. Upon their arrival on American soil, they instantly adopt a stereo-typical view of Black people. An Egyptian woman once told me that when she arrived in the States nine years ago, she was warned by an administrator