And need I remind you that America didn’t come together after 9/11 – people were still racist and still held prejudices, they were simply put on the back-burner for a while. I know for sure people don’t just want the issue of race put on the back-burner, we want it dealt with no matter how uncomfortable it may get. Sure, whites may not in large part discriminated against blacks in, say, downtown Manhattan after 9/11, but there were plenty of Arabs being blamed for the attacks around the country.

Racial justice can’t be ignored because there are terrorists in the world. Just because there is some universal threat does not mean we should ignore the very real threat of racism in America.

Here you are asking “why we can’t come together” when it’s clear you can even come to listen/read.

And that’s the problem with your “I’m sure that you will…” asinine ASSumption. I explicitly cited Tim McVeigh as the type of white supremacists domestic TERRORIST with a track record and SWORN/STATED goal similar to what you attribute to the “boogie man” called Al-Qaeda.

Tim McVeigh killed Americans with no respect to their race/ethnicity. Again, that’s the exact example I used but, for some reason, you felt compelled to show your IGNORance and your sparkling colors by reframing this debate in Black/White when I spoke to your fake concern about the threats posed against all Americans.

For some reason, you don’t Chicken Little white supremacists. And to make matters worse, after all the (fake) “why can’t we come together” stuff you declare terrorism committed against African-Americans who surely lost well more than 3000 people JUST LIKE IRAQ HAS LOST WELL MORE THAN 3000 + 4000… Well, it’s your selectivity that accounts for why we can’t come together.

All of that is YOUR CHOICE. We can’t come together because of YOU and the sh*t on your brain.

That’s a conspiracy theory you believe.

I do not.

I’m a sistah and I didn’t find Chris Rock’s joke offensive at all. It was what it was: A JOKE. I’m all for pointing out sexism towards black women, but sometimes I think sistahs take things too far to the point that they become paranoid.

The same thing about Craig believing Rice is a lesbian. Can’t a black man (or anyone) have an opinion about a black woman without sistahs going into sermons about the plight of the Single Strong Sistah?

Has a white supremacist organization pulled an event in which 3000 people died in a single day? Before you answer that, I’m sure that you will try to equate slavery and attacks on blacks by supremacists to 9/11. The two don’t exactly compare.

Can you provide any facts to back up anything you’re suggesting?

When do we put our differences to the side to confront an enemy that wants nothing more than to see is destroyed?

BULLSH*T!!! The USA has the “most powerful military the world has ever known”, is the world’s sole “Superpower” and a band of misfits are supposed to threaten the existence of the country?

Please….

I told you that CONSPIRACY THEORY bs gets no play here.

White supremacists weren’t responsible for 9/11.

That has nothing to do with the fact that white supremacists have a SWORN, STATED goal akin to what you speculate about Al Qaeda. I’m saying Al Qaeda is probably no more potent than America’s homegrown terrorists.

There is no army, conventional or gorilla, storming America’s shores or in America’s cities WITH GUNS TO OUR HEADS, Chicken Little.

If you can find me some white supremacist literature that speaks intelligently on sharia, I’ll concede your point.

My point is that they have a SWORN and STATED goal much like the one you’re trying to play the FEAR CARD with when it comes to Al Qaeda. That much was obviously clear. What doesn’t “jive” is your Chicken Little-isms.

If you’re not all worked up over homegrown terrorists the way you are Al Qaeda which, again, is not holding a gun up to your head and never launched anything that could ever be confused with an all out assault on this country… Well, spare the Chicken Noodle, Chicken Little bs.

…they came TOGETHER… Why can’t we do the same?

You’re not genuine. You know that, I know that.

We can “put our differences aside” when you those long standing “common cause” and other issues are addressed. Chew gum and walk. It doesn’t take a lot of coordination.

But you’re not genuine. “Not now” in America’s forked-tongue speak has always meant not at all.

The day of the Okey Doke is over.

“…planting IEDs and blowing up mosques in Iraq… al- Qaeda.

Even if I by your propaganda… there is a disconnect. IRAQ… USA.

I know Israel gets treated as America-EAST but conflating Iraq with the US or acting like mentioning supposed Al-Qaeda activities in Iraq is relevant shows how you’ve lost it.

I already said it’s Iraqis getting blown the f-ck up and nobody has a gun to your head, so what the hell are you talking about?

Now, before AMERICA’S RACISM started the war in Iraq any illusions of Al-Qaeda planting IED’s in Iraq were just that: non-existent illusions. “Our” vengeful RACISM was the cause to any effect you want to assign to Al-Qaeda–IN IRAQ. Not the USA. In Iraq.

The least you could do is make a coherent argument. But, again, you will have to spare me to full-frontal stank of your bs.

READING IS….

Get back to me when you’ve read up on that white supremacists literature and your knee jerk and heart rate gets all worked up over their SWORN and STATED goals.

FUNDAMENTAL.

Nothing said about white supremacists knowing/using sharia. Tell me about their SWORN and STATED goals, explain why you’re not trying to Chicken Little their SWORN and STATED goals or STFU!!!

No one in the military I served in-and that’s post 9/11, by the way-is planting IEDs and blowing up mosques in Iraq. Again, al- Qaeda.

If you can find me some white supremacist literature that speaks intelligently on sharia, I’ll concede your point. Might be difficult, though…since white supremacy doesn’t exactly jive with sharia either.

And you missed my point-which you’re getting good at-about the signers. The point was that under the threat to their very existence, they came TOGETHER.

Why can’t we do the same? At what point do we come together for a common cause? When do we put our differences to the side to confront an enemy that wants nothing more than to see is destroyed?

And it’s rather ironic that instead of this “We are Americans” idea that Obama has been subjected to a level of suspicion that betrays this fake ass posture D has. Yeah, instead of appealing for solidarity Americans didn’t care whether non-White people were Americans or not. A Sikh was mistaken for one of “them.” Black people in and out of prison where held under suspicion that “they” might be prime breeding grounds for radical Islam.

Oh but there was none of that “spread democracy” stuff going on. All the “We are Americans” sentiments got exposed in both Katrina and Jena.

At every opportunity to forge genuine solidarity our fellow Americans failed because of some twisted concept about the threats to their “way of life.”

I call ish.

I wasn’t one of those Americans who actually felt as though someone outside of us attacked us. My deep beliefs about 9/11 would cause some to label me insane at best and unpatriotic at worst.

Our chickens did not come home to roost. They never went anywhere to begin with.

But despite my radical thought about 9/11, there was no one nation, under God, indivisible.
Americans got meaner after 9/11, more paranoid.

The mixed neighborhood I lived in in the southwest of Boston changed. No more volleyball games on Sundays one block over where kids and grown folk enjoyed themselves after supper. No more pop calls by the women who lived across the street or behind us. No more Saturday potlucks at rotating houses. No more impromptu gatherings on neighbors’ front porches to talk about music, gossip about relatives, ctiticize the homeowners who were keeping up their properties.

It’s as though everyone in the neighborhood locked their doors, closed their drapes, and turned into Greta Garbo.

In October 2002, fed up with the closing of our American neighborhood, we moved.

The woman who bought our house became a friend. She tell us that things haven’t changed. Tells us that it doesn’t fell like a neighborhood at all. Tells us that people are still mean and paranoid and un-neighborly.

Now there’s a statesman appealing to our hopes instead of our fears, telling us that we can actually stop being so afraid, a statesman who believes that we can actually come together to solve our nation’s biggest problems, a statesman who is transforming the disillusioned into the activist.

And all the while, he hasn’t tried to sugarcoat the realities of our lives. But has reinforced a spiritual truth that the only way we can come together is to change our mindsets.

It’s no wonder why the ruling classes are afraid of him.

… before (and during) THIS HOUR where there is no army storming America’s coasts/beaches.

And there is NOTHING about THIS HOUR that says “we” can’t or shouldn’t reconcile “racial issues.” Again, if anything, White America ought to get religion instead of just getting paranoid, scared and anxious.

Yeah, Obama talks about the things “WE” have in common but that sh*t ain’t connecting the way it should especially when people like you like to say “We are Americans” as if you’re making some point.

Yeah, we are Americans and that means, by definition, that you don’t set the terms for all of us. You want some comforting solidarity on the War on Terrorism… then you know what you have to do.

I’m one of them coordinated Black folk. I can chew gum and walk straight at the same time. What’s your problem?

D, we have seen the enemy and the enemy is….

Get a freakin’ clue… IN THIS HOUR!!

Get back to me when you’ve read up on that white supremacists literature and your knee jerk and heart rate gets all worked up over their SWORN and STATED goals.

And note… Black folks have lived through TERRORISM. That’s part of the “past” you don’t want us to bring up IN THIS HOUR. My point is: you can’t scare us with the prospect of terrorism and Chicken Little-isms about our “way of life.”

I know I’m not looking for any tall buildings to jump off because I just can’t take it. You got to have better tactics that your projected fears. Didn’t you learn anything from Obama’s speech?

Things play out differently in the Black community. Part of that is because of the LACK OF “WE” that existed before THIS HOUR…. were there is no army storming America’s coasts/beaches.

TRY AGAIN!!!

Now get the f-ck out of her with that Chicken Little bs.

What I’ve suggested is that we shouldn’t attempt to have the discussion with a gun being held to our head.

You’re not duckin’ any bullets and there’s no gun to your head. It’s the Iraqis getting blown and shot the f-ck up as a result of US TERRORISM. The state sponsored kind.

What I know of al-Qaeda’s interpretation of sharia comes from THEIR own words. I’ve tried to study why…

Well, let me find some White militia, white supremacist literature for you, D. I’m sure you can imagine a gun to your head attached to a neo-white sheet. You imagination is active like that.

We are Americans. Hyphenate it as you will, but “American” will always be the last word. And the sooner that mentality spreads, the sooner we will preserve our way of life.

You must be joking… You don’t mean “WE” you mean YOU. There is no solidarity in struggles abroad without JUSTICE on the homefront.

That “We are Americans” dog won’t hunt. This very Rev. Wright ordeal has revealed what and who people see as “Americans.”

Ask Bush what “skin color” that is and then try to tell me “WE are Americans.” My allergies are good. I’m having no problems. I smell the strong aroma of bs.

And speaking of the strong stank of bs… “THE SIGNERS” Dude, know your audience. It’s as if you missed the lead in about America’s BIRTH DEFECT. “Mutually” my azz.

The last people you can invoke are those mf’s White America has neither disowned or denounced.

You got the wrong guy to try to pitch that bs. “The signers”… I got a sign all right but I don’t think you’d like the picture.

The age of the Okey Doke is over, D.

So…do we draw straws to determine who among us will vote for the party of…caging black votes and weakening civil rights laws?

An intelligent black woman who is single, independent and accomplished but doesn’t necessarily follow the social and political tenets set forth by the cabal that is middle class Black America has to be a lesbian.

I must have missed that meeting. Would someone please forward me the minutes?

Thanks.

I haven’t suggested that there shouldn’t be a discussion on racism in this country. What I’ve suggested is that we shouldn’t attempt to have the discussion with a gun being held to our head.

What I know of al-Qaeda’s interpretation of sharia comes from THEIR own words. I’ve tried to study why they think what they do, so if you’ve got something to add, I welcome it.

My argument is this: in this hour, against this enemy, there should be no “us” and “them,” because that’s not how the enemy sees us. We are Americans. Hyphenate it as you will, but “American” will always be the last word. And the sooner that mentality spreads, the sooner we will preserve our way of life.

In the Declaration, the signers pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to the cause of freedom. What’s important in that pledge is not WHAT they pledged, but HOW they pledged it: “mutually.” We’d do well to heed that pledge.

Keep your CONSPIRACY THEORY propaganda to yourself.

You don’t know a damn thing about Sharia… And that Chicken Little bs don’t fly.

You act like we’re in a cold war with an army remotely comparable to our own. You insult your own intelligence pedaling that bs.

It’s America’s own racism and her capitalistic/imperialistic chickens coming how to roost in her own implosion.

We don’t need an Al Qaeda except for a convenient scapegoat. America’s own misdeeds are doing her in. America chose to be weak by trying to maintain White Supremacy.

None of that is our fault. And all the Americanism in the world can’t make Al Qaeda, blowback we help create, into the ominous “boogie man” you’re trying to make them/radical Islam out to be.

Israel is in the Middle East in a virtual sea of radical Islamist, yet, Israel still exists and the USA too. We can readily note how suicide bombings aren’t happening here on a regular basis.

Stupid ass CONSPIRACY THEORY and shameless fear-mongering… You can’t scare people into solidarity and your unfounded paranoia isn’t shared.

Stop PROJECTING America’s intentions…

If the best you can do is try to use some other “boogie man” as a way to “unite” us vs. JUSTICE then it’s clear that you intend on continuing the racist status quo.

If anything, the idea that there are people threatening the country we all share should engender some genuine, heart-felt reflection on just how foolish DENIAL OF JUSTICE for Black people, e.g., is when you’re going to turn around and try to appeal to those same people for solidarity.

Let me be clear… You got the wrong guy to think that American stuff is going to do the trick. There’s not a damn thing magic in the word to me. And to even begin to try to raise the spectre of the failing economy when this country, its government and, yes, it’s people via WHITE MAJORITY RULE have resisted investing in all her people… You’re crying to the wrong guy, trying to pull at heartstrings I don’t have.

Your thoughts aren’t post-racial. They’re are racially blind to the fact that America never gave a f-ck about economic prospects or solidarity with Black people when White folks “way of life” weren’t threatened from without. Instead, America treated the notions of solidarity with her Black citizens on issues of concern to her Black citizens up to and including crisis level economic concerns in the Black community as a threat to White folks “way of life” from within.

Don’t insult my/Black folks intelligence by trying to feign friendship when America has always treated us as enemies.

It’s White America who has to prove her loyalty and the first place to start is on the racial equality front.

“Our” economy is not the way America sees it in times of White comfort. And, truth be told, America doesn’t see it as “our” economy now. The decades long debate over affirmative action always featured the white poor as the trump card… the excuse for why nothing “special” could be done for Black folks even as Dr. King noted how something “special was done against us.”

No, Lone Ranger, don’t come to Tonto talking about “coming together” now. What the hell you’re talking about “WE” for, America, when you’ve had what Obama noted as an EMPATHY DEFICIT for things going on NOW, not in the past… NOW.

And that’s just it. Folks have been making the WE and OUR argument til they were blue in the face but it takes economic collapse and external forces for White America to acknowledge in any serious way that they aren’t the only people in America, however disingenuous and fear-induced the oft repeated pleas are.

Oh, no… There will be no post-memory America. We’ve seen this go down too many times. Black people have fought in all of America’s wars only to have to come back to post-war America to have another war to fight.

No, you got the wrong guy. I don’t do bs.

And speaking of bs… Funny how everything Rev. Wright said in the soundbites are supposed to be dismissed because of the AIDS conspiracy yet scared azz mf’s can concoct some ridiculous notion that there’s some “boogie man” out to “destroy” us when its America’s disease of racism, capitalism and just plain selfish azz ruling White elites who don’t give a damn about country.

And, really, the last thing anyone should ever do is try to decry (racial) tribalism by invoking even more nationalistic tribalism.

I got a serious problem with the idea that America can put a number of Americans who have lost their lives in Iraq but has no respect for the humanity of Iraqis to even attempt to report on the numbers of INNOCENT Iraqis who have lost their lives.

Then people have the nerve to get upset when Rev. Wright preaches TRUTH regarding how “violence begets violence” and how the KILLING OF INNOCENTS ought to be damned. Anyone without the humanity to acknowledge how other people lives other than they’re own are being/have been destroyed doesn’t deserve anyone’s solidarity.

This isn’t just a black problem. Earlier I said that EVERYONE needs to come together on this one. It will be the NATION’S loss if we fail because we can’t unite.

I think that black people don’t always see how the War on Terror affects them….because, like you said, some of us don’t feel like 9/11 happened TO us.

The truth is that 9/11 was another act in a jihad not limited to white America, but against ALL of America. Under sharia, you have three options: convert, pay for second class citizenship, or die. There are no exceptions-racial or otherwise.

We as blacks have gotten bogged down in Iraq, and have lost sight of the larger objectives in the War on Terror. That is OUR fault.

But the racial piece isn’t just limited to blacks.