YOU THOUGHT I WAS STUPID RIGHT ?

For years I have had to deal with two trains of thought when working and living in a majority White world. I usually get, “He must think he’s better than us” or “This guy IS better than us.” I know this may sound arrogant and racist to post but, this has been my experience for years since I was a child. From grade school to college and into the private corporate world, I have had to endure incidents where I’ve had my intelligence (different than ideas or actions) challenged in PUBLIC. Those challenges, from my point of view, were all direct attacks to my person and my PLACE within the infrastructure that is America. As in any attack, my response was always for INTELLECTUAL BLOOD. Take no prisoners. I wanted you wounded to the point that you feared even opening your mouth around me. Mind you, I knew that doing this meant career suicide, (especially if you did this in Public with an audience of co-workers) but it was necessary for everyone to know that the next time, YOU BETTER THINK as well as RECOGNIZE.

There was a time when I was a child, I was very self-conscious about what I knew. The fact that I was a straight A student and well read and traveled. The fact that my parents made sure that education and a World View was as important as my Spirit and Love, Respect and Life would make me a strong Black Man. In my adult life I know that I am an information-holic and I don’t want to go to Rehab. (I say No! No! No!) I love learning. Anything that is new and informative I gravitate to and I like talking about it. I am not the overly loquacious type, meaning I don’t talk and talk without consciously acknowledging that whomever I am speaking to has tuned out, but I can hold my own in conversations in many situations. I know how to research and I don’t like being in a situation where I don’t KNOW. Call it a competition thing from childhood or my parents constant drilling of sending me to my room until I found the answer before coming out. And when I did I would be asked, how did I feel knowing that you are that much more smarter then yesterday?

In working environments, I often become the go-to guy for information. When there are changes and in policy I recall the old policies as well as the new ones, I know the technology in my area as well as others, I compare and improve based on the information I gather and examine the changes even more, I am proactive (which is not well liked in any working environment) and I can go on with other examples but the point I want to make is this, I have been approached by many WHITE folk and would be put on the spot about what I know or what they think I don’t know. In their PERSONAL attack, I make sure I totally CRUSHED THEIR EXPECTATIONS OF ME. Even more so, knowing the intent of their questioning, I make sure that when I am done answering, that the next time they try it, ether with me or any other Black or Brown person, they THINK TWICE. what brought up these feeling was seeing this Vid on YouTube and I was so IN TO THE BROTHER'S RESPONSES.

The interviewer was trying to dominate and change the course of the answers, trying to up and twist the answers, which was a sure sign of his intimidation and disrespect of the Black man's intelligence. This is a common strategy of the insecure and Political Pundits looking to discredit CREDIBLE people. Once these people find out that their abilities to make fun or light of a person’s credibility and their knowledge, they immediately try to become “friends” because they know their actions have been found out by a more Superior Mind. It’s a coward’s tactic, and I see it too often to allow it to brush up against me and those Black folk around me who can not defend themselves against it.

People such as Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, Harry Belafonte, Cornell West, Amiri Baraka, Julian Bond just to name a few have on many occasions have been subject to this type of questioning with the interviewer ALWAYS going home limping and frustrated at being a victim of Honest and Truth reflected back at them. This is one of the reasons why media is VERY selective as to WHAT TYPE of Black people they choose to speak to and or interview. As recent at Montel Williams' dismissal from FOX TV for articulating WELL his views on the troops killed in battle in Iraq instead of talking about the death of Heath Ledger. He got the NEGRO BE BOOTED TO THE CURB for that one because He, Montel, can not possibly have a voice or even a conscious thought to articulate a sentence in the language America seared upon Black tongues or even have the capacity of logic to argue the TRUTH.

I wish I was standing next to this kid when he was being asked those questions. I know that before the Reporter turned his cameras away I would have yelled, ‘Now don’t you look stupid, you just thought he was some Monkey Shuffling, Mindless Negro without an once of education or individual conscious to VOTE his mind. You need to be smacked for your ignorance!” and I would have too. No one wants to be made a fool of and when WHITES in ignorance or in full conscious do it, THEY wake up the beast that over 400 years of Slavery in the Americas have brought, especially when you are questioning BLACKS FOLKS reasons for voting for a another BLACK MAN. To be honest, to even ask BLACK people why they are voting for a BLACK MAN FOR PRESIDENT should be in itself, an insult on so many levels.

I think the role of a Barak Obama in his bid to become President is that Whites are slowly realizing that BLACK PEOPLE are intelligent and talent, we are intellectuals and creators, pioneers and engineers and are existence is more than what America and the World assumes. But like my life experiences have shown is that once you challenge those at the TOP, the ones that are their by privileged and not merit, often find that the fight to maintain influence can be harsh and vicious unless you are prepared to join and be like MIKE.

MONTEL WILLIAMS CASUALTY OF IRAQ INVASION

No sooner than I send off STAR JONES and close the door, Montel Williams gets my attention as he asks for his hat and coat to leave as well. My BLACK TV HOST PARTY is starting to get smaller.

Montel Williams is the latest casualty of the Iraq Invasion and the FOX Network. Montel the ex-Marine, Rodeo Clown, National Syndicated Talk Show Host, Spokes Person for (MS) Multiple Sclerosis, Spokes Person for Partnership for Prescription Assistance, Speaker of Veterans’ Rights and now recently fired from the FOX Network.

Lets just detail how this happened:

"Shortly before Fox-owned and operated television stations in major markets terminated Montel's talk-show contract, Montel appeared in an interview on Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends, and was asked to discuss Heath Ledger's death. He used the interview to point out that TV networks had continued to extensively cover Mr. Ledger's death while ignoring the deaths of 28 US soldiers in Iraq since the beginning of the year. Montel expressed sympathy for Mr. Ledger's family and remorse for his passing but also encouraged the three interviewers to recognize the absence of coverage for the US soldiers killed in Iraq. The interviewers sought to point out that their audience wanted celebrity news and it was more interesting than soldier deaths. Montel suggested that US news networks had the capacity to lead the country's attitudes by placing more importance on US deaths in Iraq than the deaths of celebrities. Montel noted that he had awoken that morning very saddened by the unknown names of those slain in Iraq and was further saddened when he could not find their names on the web.

Three minutes into this awkward segment on Fox, one host cut off Montel in order to go to a commercial. Montel did not return after the break."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montel_Williams

Four days later, after 17 years as a television host, Montel lost his job. The SPIN is that Montel Williams quit. I find it hard to believe that a man of his caliber, with the OUTREACH of a NATIONALLY syndicated show and the causes he support would QUIT. Last I checked, Marines don’t QUIT.

I am not a big Montel Williams fan. I won’t front and say I never was but like all things, some of his personal philosophies rubbed hard against many of my beliefs. Personally I feel many of his Montel’isms are a product of his military career (which in itself is a unique ideology) and choices in his personal life. But that is the beauty in GOD’s creation, we are all uniquely different individuals and thus the spirit of a MAN allows for civilized co-existence or at least in the United States the Right to agree to disagree without fist-to-cuffs. Regardless of my indifference to Montel Williams, I don’t like when people get JACKED and AXED for speaking Truth. The MAN SPOKE truth and for it, he is not necessarily SILENCED but is stabbed at his reputation and the money he makes. You see most people fear for their lives but WEALTHY people fear POVERTY more. To go for the pockets/pocketbooks is the standard for silencing the wealthy and FOX decided to go that routine which as far as I'm concern will be a practice of the past come election time.

I recall a speech made several years ago where the topic was BUYING BLACKS OUT OF THEIR COMMUNITIES. The speaker spoke on how various annals of America tease and titillate the most talented in BLACK communities with promises of Money, Political Influence (never any real Power), Fame and Beauty. The speaker also detailed a number of Blacks whom had taken the APPLE FROM THE TREE and decided to share that knowledge or speak for those they had left behind and the actions taken to bring them down and or silenced before they succeeded. He had also detailed those that currently are riding the wave of success and in Black’s praise of them, only time will show if they will compromise or reach out to help others rise as well. So far, they haven’t. Montel wasn’t on that short list but the events of his show’s cancellation clearly details how much loyalty one has for the TRUTH and the extent THE POWERS THAT BE would go to destroy it.

Lately Montel Williams have gone public to discuss his objection to Obesity, Child Abuse, Internet Predators, Holistic Living, Detoxing of the Body, making the names of Military Officers Public, the effects of Poverty in Relation to Crime and many more social concerns. With his Talk Show as a venue for discussion, it was only a matter of time before the FOX Network saw fit to cancel his show. It’s like that one person at work that gets all the accolades. As long as he/she doesn’t affect the Boss or Supervisor they are safe. Bring attention that their performance is better or more efficient, they are gone because of some minor infraction. Montel, not wanting to talk about a dead man and the details of his death before an autopsy was done was a fair and respectful as well as an honorable thing to do. His Momma taught him well.

Am I upset that his show was cancelled. Not really, I didn’t watch it and yet it does not take away from the fact that others did and that Montel Williams did serve a purpose and regardless of my personal feelings toward him, I’d still call on him to do GREAT THINGS in my community. He’s a Good Man and FOX doesn’t want Good Men, they only want SHEEP. Last time I checked, the Marines Don’t Do Sheep.