Vision Circle

What's the American ideal? Is it what is written or what's practiced? In terms of what is written, the most fundamentally un-American group would be the government - beginning with the jump in the D of I to the three-fifths compromise in the ratified constitution, thirteen years later. it's not as though the 'founding fathers' actually believed in all this stuff - hence the persistence of the electoral college, etc. the affirmation of the republic, not a democracy, was the at the heart of the work of those cats in the late 1700's and early 1800's. the models were not greek democracies, but roman and modern republics...so, what is american? - the myth of democracy or the reality of a plutocratic/kakistocratic republic?

and if that's the reality, how does this relate to black folk? isn't our mere presence here inherently subversive because it has been our presence that has pushed this nation-state(x50) toward democracy and away from its republican (not the political party) ideals?

wasn't the great fear of hoover and his coterie that leaders like king and others would not only energize black folk, but appeal to young white folk and fundamentally alter the society. it happened anyway - and it made the society more democratic - and less of a republic, but there is still a long way to go because the globalization of firms/capital has undermined this nation's ability to act principally as a democracy, while also functioning as an empire/republic along the roman model. king, then, fits the role of spartacus - because even though rome and washington proclaim the love of liberty, freedom, etc. it is within the context of a caste system that rejects the humanity of selected groups...

hence, the formation of the "freedman's bureau" versus the "freeman's bureau." a "freedman" is someone who has been freed by a "freer" and the "freer" is "FREE-ER"(more free) than he whom that is "FREED." so the caste system obtains and persists...and the implications of subversion is innately tied to the notion that as africans push a republic toward democracy, they subvert the authentic (read REAL) ideals of that republic.

the fact that we've been here longer than white folks (generally speaking) and shaped the laws, language, culture, economy, topography, industry, etc. is quite beside the point.

The short and quick answer is that Blacks, as a class, continue to rigorously critique the American system. Perhaps more than any other group, however defined.

I could write a book...

while MIB is correct in offering the Quick and Dirty, it may also be important to acknowledge that black folk don't simply critique the system, but we critique the narrative (and by implication, the inherent contradictions) of the system. and that's what really pisses some folk off...it's like our breathing is interrupting their telling of a magnificent tall tale.

US Blacks became American the moment they brought those first Africans to these shores. If our presence is so subversive to the American way of life, then how do you square that with the fact that we were essentially "invited" here. We did not sail to America en masse. Hell, most of us barely even trust the water.

Half of the subversive presence that they talk about is a result of their own poor planning. They always over look the fact that illiteracy was literally state-sanctioned. Why would you enforce illiteracy and then try to "integrate" later on down the road? Poor planning thats why. They expected Blacks to be work-mules for all eternity. And even if they expected Blacks to be freed eventually...how do you square that possibility with state-sanctioned illiteracy?!

what are you talking about...

To look at my beautiful brown skin and say I'm African American is redundant.paws