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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781504921206 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 07/15/2015 |
| Pages: | 254 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.58(d) |
Read an Excerpt
Black Pandering
Why Racism May Never End
By Charles G. Ankrom
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2015 Charles G. AnkromAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5049-2120-6
CHAPTER 1
Why This Book?
To be honest, I had long planned to write this book. I began to get the idea for it way back when the movie "White Men Can't Jump" first came out in 1992.
I wondered then why no one saw that movie as racist. Instead, people from all ethnic groups plopped down their money to see it, and laughed their heads off.
To think, here was a movie poking fun at a perceived inadequacy of white people to black (i.e. the inability to jump, or more precisely, to play basketball).
Now, it was not openly racist in the way it was made or in the dialogue, and I give the movie makers credit for that.
But the premise of the movie was clearly there, in the title of the movie, written out on marquees all across America-- "White Men Can't Jump," and in the innuendoes and storyline.
But not one thing was said about racism. Nothing.
I thought to myself then about my imagined movie, "Black Men Can't Read" and wondered what society would say if I had made just such a movie.
I dare say I would have been crucified for such blatant racism. Strung up, perhaps. Oops, I probably shouldn't use that phrase because that is racist too, at least when used by a white person. Starting to see the picture?
I began to perceive what was obvious to me, but apparently not to anyone else — the existence of a politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination in our society.
How could discrimination simply be assumed in our society when it was whites discriminating against blacks, but not when it flowed the other direction?
Be that as it may, I also paid my money to watch the movie, laughed some myself and filed my feelings away, thinking that perhaps it was just one example, and maybe I was being too critical in drawing what to me was the obvious conclusion.
I did nothing, I guess the lazy part of me was thinking that we were becoming a more equal society and that things would continue to get better as far as equality and fairness was concerned.
I was wrong.
Through the years, I continued to notice other incidents and occurrences which further pointed out this politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination, and the thought of writing the book continued to grow.
Further, I began to notice how newspapers and television news stories started pandering to blacks every time they cried racism. I watched as these stories were given not just the time of day, but the biggest spotlight of all.
And this pandering to blacks crying racism got worse and worse with the passage of time.
Remember the attention paid to the death of Trayvon Martin, and the circus that was the trial of George Zimmerman? And how about the entire fall of 2014 and how the media world was obsessed with the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and then Eric Garner in New York? Cover the cries of racism, at all cost.
Yet we never heard about the stories where the roles were reversed, did we? Many of these incidents are covered in detail in the chapters that follow.
I think back to the time I went to watch the Harlem Globetrotters in Springfield, Missouri in the mid 1990's. As I watched in a gym that was filled with an audience that was approximately 95% white, I suddenly realized that a great deal of their humor and jokes were quite simply racist.
Meadowlark Lemon at one point was in the crowd talking to a spectator and looked as if he had lost track of where she was sitting and remarked, "well, you people do all look alike."
The crowd roared.
It was "White Men Can't Jump" all over again.
The other team, which was at least 90 percent white, and even the white referees were maligned with jokes that were blatantly racist.
Were people mad? Were they leaving the gym because of the racism?
No.
They were laughing.
And everyone seemed to leave with a smile on their face, because black people making fun of white people was politically-correct in our society.
I thought of my history bowl movie scenario once more, about all the white members on the other teams making fun of how stupid the black guy on our team obviously had to be. I mean, "Black Men Can't Read," right?
I wondered again how that would go over as a movie in society, much less if it happened for real.
It wouldn't.
There was a clear double standard-- a politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination.
I began to notice other things that supported my proposition as well, and watched as the presumption grew so much more ingrained with the passage of time.
The pandering continued, and grew!
Black comedians could use the N-word and make all the jokes about white people they wanted to, without ramifications. White comedians, and all other whites for that matter, could not.
Famous white celebrities and entertainers, from Fuzzy Zoeller in golf, to Don Imus on the talk show circuit, either lost, or severely damaged their careers for making racial comments against blacks. Many of these instances are covered in later chapters of this book.
Black civil rights activists such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton flocked to the scenes of any incident where whites were allegedly discriminating against blacks, or where whites made racial comments against blacks.
They demanded justice in the name of equality. And society, and the media, graciously accepted their presence as well as their ramblings.
I didn't see the same men, or anyone else for that matter go to the incidents where it was alleged that blacks had mistreated, or discriminated against, or said racial comments against whites.
Why not?
Perhaps you, too, are beginning to see the point of this book.
On and on, the examples came to life.
We have a Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. Is there a Congressional White one?
We have a Black History Month, but I don't recall there being a white one of those either!
Affirmative Action where thousands of white lost jobs, or positions in educational enrollments, to blacks.
Over and over, events played out this recurring theme of a politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination and an excessive pandering of blacks.
One chapter herein covers the incident of the Jena Six in Louisiana and the arrival in criminal law of something called 'hate crimes' which society seems to use predominantly for crimes of whites against blacks and not the reverse.
My chapter and discussion on the Jena six will clearly illustrate how the use of 'hate crimes' analysis in that particular incident almost single-handedly proves my propositions.
And then one day, it happened. Something which finally triggered me to begin to pen these thoughts, facts, and ideas.
But I didn't want to just gripe and complain.
Everybody does that.
Nor did I want to come across as some sort of white supremacist or racist, for either of those I am truly not.
I believe in equality for all races of people.
I had a sincere hope to present my views in an intellectual way that not only proved the existence of a politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination, but backed it up with examples and instances in a way that people could actually recognize the existence of it themselves.
And in doing so, perhaps they could be motivated in a positive way to do something about it and bring about an end to racism.
The trigger was an article which appeared on the front page, no less, of the Springfield, Missouri News-Leader on January 17, 2011. This is the same Springfield where I had previously watched the Harlem Globetrotter game earlier.
Now Springfield has the distinction of being the second least diverse city in America (behind Portland, Oregon) for a town its size. The percentage of all minorities who live there is extremely small.
The article was about the local Springfield chapter of the NAACP organizing a visit for black high school students from Springfield to visit some 'historically black colleges' (also discussed in chapters herein) in Missouri so they could, and I quote the local NAACP head, "show them young people who look like them" who were successfully achieving at a college level.
Did the NAACP leader actually say that?
Clearly, that had to be one of the most blatantly racist things anyone could ever say.
Period.
And right there, no less, than on the front page of Springfield's daily newspaper.
But the way the story was written made it appear to be such a wonderful thing that these black high school students were going to go to a 'historically black college' (know of any 'historically white colleges' that still exist as such, by the way?) so they could see other students who "look like them" and therefore want to achieve the same.
You have got to be kidding me, I thought.
I watched the same newspaper for days to see if anyone picked up on the racist aspect of the story the way I did.
Not one letter to the editor.
None.
I got to wondering what might happen if I had organized a trip for inner-city white high school students from say, Kansas City, Missouri, which has a large black population, to go to some almost all white rural Missouri school to see other white students achieving, other students who "look like them" being successful in school.
You and I both know, that I would never have heard the end of that as being absolutely and totally racist.
Clearly there existed in our society a politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination, and an excess of pandering to blacks. I realized then and there that something finally needed to be said.
And thus began "Black Pandering: Why Racism May Never End." or a book centered around an opening idea of a proposed move called "Black Men Can't Read."
Totally fictitious, of course. For there never was, is, or will be, such a movie.
And that's the point. Society would never allow such a racist movie to be made. Yet "White Men Can't Jump" was never even slightly considered racist.
I continued to gather ideas, and society didn't let me down!
More and more white celebrities fell by the wayside for uttering that dreaded N word.
Heck, society even had to create the euphemism — N word, to refer to the N word. You couldn't even use the word when talking about the word!
Or at least whites couldn't!
But wait, blacks could use the N word at will. Whites were told it was a word of 'endearment' among blacks. Hogwash!
And the word currently proliferates the rap music of today.
Then came the death of Trayvon Martin. The media exploded in an attempt to make Trayvon's death a racial thing. CNN even had to create, or at least use the most, the term, "white Hispanic" to describe George Zimmerman, Trayvon's killer, to even make the story a racial one, because Zimmerman was not actually white, but Hispanic.
And alas, Zimmerman was found not guilty. And society, due to the politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination had a racial injustice on its hands, where once again the whites had discriminated against the blacks.
Protests were rampant, with protestors proclaiming the beginning of a new civil rights movement. "Justice for Trayvon" they shouted. But some of the jurors from the trial threw a little kink in that plan by proclaiming that race played no role whatsoever in their decision.
I am sure you remember all the attention paid to the death of Trayvon Martin, and the circus that was the trial of George Zimmerman?
And how about the entire fall of 2014 and how the media world was obsessed with the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and then Eric Garner in New York? Cover the cries of racism, at all cost.
Yet we never heard about the stories where the roles were reversed, did we? Many of these incidents are covered in detail in the chapters that follow.
There were a few years of quiet after that, then boom — Ferguson, and the death of the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white cop Darren Wilson.
The entire fall of 2014 the media world was obsessed with the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Cover the cries of racism, at all cost.
Story after story after story. Pandering to a degree previously not seen.
All we heard about was Ferguson and Michael Brown.
Again discrimination of whites against blacks was alleged and allowed by society and the media to be presumed, especially after the grand jury of St Louis County refused to indict.
Protests broke out. Violence erupted. Blacks were shouting, "No justice, No peace," or "Hands up don't shoot." The spotlight of the media was clearly Ferguson and just as clearly the news was slanted toward the black point of view.
Whites seemed to remember, "Burn this Bitch Down," or the words of Brown's step father Louis Head just before the violence, (and fires) broke out.
And maybe that was what whites wanted to hear based on the excessive pandering of blacks that seemed to be the special of the day.
Shortly after that came another boom. The death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York City. Again a failure to indict. Riots and protests broke out anew.
Now it was, "Black lives matter" and a full blown revival of racism in America. The media ate it up and crammed it down the throats of all Americans, further calling for investigations from the administration of America's first black president.
The Department of Justice obliged, as to the Garner and Brown killings, even though they failed to announce separate investigations in the deaths of several whites at the hands of blacks. (again, explained in later chapters herein)
Double standards were everywhere.
The politically-correct mindset of reverse discrimination, rather than having subsided, was worse than ever, or so it seemed.
And the pandering reached epic proportions, even up to today through the recent death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.
Pandering to blacks?
You tell me.
You remember how the death of Freddie Gray was clearly made a racial issue?
Try this on for size.
Three of the six cops charged in Freddie Gray's death are BLACK, the police chief of Baltimore is BLACK, the mayor of Baltimore is BLACK, and the district attorney of Baltimore is BLACK.
Yet somehow it was all made into a racial injustice issue and a "Black Lives Matter" revival by blacks and the media.
The book had to be finished.
So here it is!
"Black Pandering: Why Racism May Never End."
CHAPTER 2"The Animal"
In entertaining my thoughts over the years of writing this book, and wondering exactly how I might get my ideas across in words, I was never so utterly shocked as when I entered a movie theater in 2001 and watched what appeared to be just another routine light-hearted comedy.
The move was called 'The Animal" and starred popular comedian Rob Schneider. You may remember him from Saturday Night Live.
The movie was funny, but for me at least, turned out to be far from routine, at least to my way of thinking.
Because as I walked out of the theater that night I realized that never had the very point and proposition of my book been so vividly presented.
There it was as plain as day!
It was in the form of a comedy, but we all know that sometimes the truest truths come across best that way.
You truly need to rent and watch that movie if the ideas contained in this book interest you at all, and see for yourself.
The movie 'The Animal" which grossed some $84 million, was about Schneider's character being critically injured but unknown to him, put back together by a mad scientist using animal parts.
Yes, animal parts.
As a result, Schneider's character began to exhibit strange, but permanent, and uncontrollable changes in his behavior.
Essentially, he began to act like an animal.
Now, in what appeared to be a side story to the overall storyline was Schneider's black male friend who was always claiming the existence of reverse discrimination as to him because he was black.
No matter how hard he tried, it seemed he could never get anyone white to hold him responsible for anything, even for things he had actually done. Several times during the movie he was seen complaining about this reverse discrimination.
And it wouldn't be until the very end of the movie that we learned how the black friend's character and his issues were going to be woven into a resolution of the entire movie.
As the movie progressed, Schneider first noticed some minor, but weird changes in is behavior. He would jump for frisbees, chase cats and generally exhibit animal-like tendencies.
He developed a super sense of smell, and in one hilarious scene helped sniff out heroin in the rectum of a man at an airport. He was awarded a medal by the police.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Black Pandering by Charles G. Ankrom. Copyright © 2015 Charles G. Ankrom. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
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