So in an article I wrote about “black power,” some random right-wing Republican from “landofthetea.com” decided to take a break from passing out his “Santorum 2012” pamphlets at his local trailer park to furiously inform me that conservatives aren’t responsible for the situation in the inner-city. He then proceeded to tell me that the most pressing issue facing the black community today isn’t white supremacy but the lack of republican values that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supposedly ascribed to. He linked me to the book of some sad ol’ black female conservative that got brainwashed into believing “marxism” was the reason so many blacks live in impoverished ghettos. Now, there are many white conservative racists that expound these silly views but apparently this dude thought if it came from a “sista” I would believe it. However, whether morally bankrupt conservative ideology is being spewed from the mouth of the most elitist white person in Alabama or from a black woman from Washington D.C, it still is stupid.
This lady (her name is Star Parker) actually wants black Americans to believe that Karl Marx sympathizers in the government with their “communist” social programs of food stamps are the real reason for urban decay. The name of her website is “urbancure.org”. I dont know why because if the black community took her medicine we would probably die out. She believes that if blacks were just hooked up to capitalism that our situation would be better. She chastises “Occupy Wall Street” as, according to this lady, in order for blacks to win over their “freedom” we must join progressive and anti-racist movements like the tea party! Of course, I will issue a rebuttal to her foolish ideology but seeing as though the woman’s website is infested with islamaphobic venom and horribly written pro-Santorum articles; she obviously lives in a fantasy world and probably won’t be convinced.
First she claims that:
“There are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.[1]”
What a ridiculous statement to make. In reality, there is a wealthy America on capitalism and then there are poor people who are victims of the capitalist system that must then rely upon social services as the only way to survive. As I noted earlier, capitalism is a monetary system that has its origins in Europe. Europeans went all around the globe enslaving people, colonizing nations, and stealing resources just to accumulate “capital” and make “profits,” which is what capitalism is all about. The greedy European elites want for domination of the world’s capital is precisely what led to imperialism and the enslavement of black Africans. The current impoverished state of black Americans is due to the legacy of plantation slavery, past and systemic institutionalized racism, and the fact that their exploitation is profitable and an integral unalterable part of the capitalist system.
America became wealthy through plantation slavery which was succeeded by the prison industrial complex. However, republicans claim that people are poor due to a lack of hard work, perseverance and protestant ethic. Listen dimwits, if “hard work” was all it took then I’m pretty sure blacks would be filthy rich as we put forth four hundred years of hard work into building this country, and have persevered through a social system designed to destroy us. But of course, this is not the case. America and the western world only became wealthy due to racist colonial expansion, subjugation, slavery, institutional racism, and many other negative attributes that capitalism encourages. So, in this respect, I agree with the conservatives that wealthy America is on capitalism. But they have to be doing meth in those trailer parks of theirs to claim that capitalism is some “free” and “enlightened” system of economics. Capitalism is obviously an evil system of economics that absolutely no one should admire, as it is based on greed, rape, pillaging, and theft.
Now Star Parker believes that in order for blacks to “get ahead” we must get hooked on to capitalism. She’s got to be out of her mind so I’ll give her a history lesson. Britain was the mother of capitalism. Britain got pregnant and gave birth to several daughters Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and America which had a birth defect causing more racism then the average child. All of these nations were founded upon colonialism, genocide, and slavery. So white capitalists already succeeded in amassing most of the wealth, resources, and labor on the planet. Capitalism is designed to exploit blacks not to empower them. Recently, there has been an attempt by the black middle class to “play catch up” under the confines of their unfair system but due to the level of racism blocking black socio-economic aspirations these black folks just end up becoming the black capitalist ruling class exploiting poor blacks while still underneath whites.
This does not mean I believe blacks shouldn’t establish businesses. We must create our own businesses, employ our own people, and take care of our own people by selling quality goods/services and organize with the urban poor as a prelude for protesting for a massive redistribution of wealth. There can be no economic empowerment for blacks under capitalism. There will always be an exploiter and there will always be an exploited. This bourgeoisie elitist black “talented tenth” philosophy has got to go.
The next view of profound ignorance she expounds that I’ll address is the idea the notion that poor Americans are on socialism. Star Parker believes welfare for the poor is socialism. You’ve got to be kidding me – in order for there to be socialism, the people must have control over the means of production and it must be distributed for the common good. This is clearly not the case. Capitalism is an economic system created by a tiny number of white elite, designed to take resources and the fruits of others’ hard labor into their own covetous hands. This system is incapable of meeting the needs of the people. It is solely about maximizing profits. Thus, to accomplish this capitalists seek to enhance profit by minimizing the amount spent on labor. For this reason, capitalism is incapable of creating employment opportunities that will allow people to eat, have homes, and live decent lives. Unemployment and poverty are inevitable under capitalism.
Many manufacturing jobs in the inner-cities were shipped overseas to Mexico so companies could get access to cheaper labor. In addition, due to the level of institutionalized racism in this country, black folks are the first fired and last hired. This is precisely why there are poor black Americans on welfare. This is not socialism; in fact due to repressive legislation (such as Bill Clinton’s “welfare to work”) many black single mothers have been kicked off of welfare, leaving their children to starve. As a result of this, many black youth have entered the underground illegal economy of drug selling, as it is the only way to survive and put food in their stomachs. As Hip-Hop artist Tupac once said “We tired of this capitalistic drug dealing, How hypocritical is Liberty? [she] ain’t never did shit for me, My history, full of casket and scars, My own black nation at war, whole family behind bars and they wonder why we scarred, thirteen lookin’ hard.[2]”
Also, due to corporate welfare the rich and their corporations get to pay close to no taxes, exploit the workers, and then get bailed out whenever they go in debt. The reason their parasitic cooperations are in debt is because they can’t control their greed so they commit fraud and steal from the company. Wells Fargo partook in several racist business practices and referred to blacks as”mud people.” This company was eventually rewarded with 25 billion dollars in a bailout. The rich that exploit get bailouts and tax breaks all the time. That is what capitalism is all about – exploit, rob, and take.
Was Martin Luther King A Conservative?
As for the ridiculous claim that Dr. Martin Luther King was a supporter of conservative ideology, I will let the man speak for himself.
“There are forty million poor people here. And one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.”
“”Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two thirds water?” [3]
“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. “ [4]
If these statements were made by anyone other than Dr. Martin Luther King, republicans would be up in arms about how Dr. Martin Luther King is the Marxist, Islamic, anti-American anti-Christ. Of course, this is just a lame attempt to coopt the man’s legacy. Dr. Martin Luther King would definitely not be at the Tea Party passing out Santorum pamphlets. Indeed, the speech found in his pocket, before he was assassinated was entitled “Why America may go to hell”. This speech wasn’t exactly the patriotic foolishness republicans admire. The next foolish remark the commenter makes is that:
“I agree entirely that our poor inner-city kids are forced into failing schools. Conservatives (classical-liberals) support freedom of choice in education.”
It is obvious that this man has absolutely no clue about the extent of the black struggle. You may support “freedom of choice” in theory but the economic system you support which is “capitalism” locks black inner-city youth in school to prison pipeline schools, because their incarceration is profitable and gives elites access to free labor. There is no “freedom of choice” when a black mother can’t afford to send her children off to elitist private schools or when black students have to travel miles upon miles on trains and buses to get an education because the school in their own community is decrepit with outdated, dusty textbooks. There is no “freedom of choice” when black mothers have to lie about their address just to get an adequate education. bottom line is that capitalism, conservatives, and right-wing ideology have absolutely nothing to offer the black community except poverty, repression, mass-incarceration, and ignorance.
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1) http://www.urbancure.org/article.asp?id=3141
2) Tupac Letter to the President. http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/46533/
3) Why We Can’t Wait By Dr. Martin Luther King. JR.
4 The Missing Quote From King’s Memorial http://blackagendareport.com/content/missing-quote-king-memorial
Also, see Black Capitalism by Lorenzo Ervin http://libcom.org/library/black-capitalism-lorenzo-ervin
