Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00415)

Should African Americans Wave The Flag? By Donna J. Warren



Black folks riding around with American flags waving from cars. Black
folks thinking maybe racial profiling isn’t so bad as long as they’re
profiling those evil terrorists, the Arabs and the Muslims. 

Is it really OK for Black folks to ride around with American flags?

Is racial profiling now OK when directed to the Arab and Muslim
Communities?

Recent polls in the Black community show that 60% of African Americans
are in favor of racial profiling of the Arab/Muslim community in light
of the 911 World Trade bombings. Is racial profiling, a product of
insidious American racism, ever justified? 

Timothy McVeigh--male, white, American, veteran, Michigan militia
member, blew up the Oklahoma federal building. America did not racially
profile white Americans. 

America did not advocate blowing up the State of Michigan.

The Taliban wants evidence of Osama bin Laden’s guilt before they turn
bin Laden over to a court.

No negotiations says Bush. ‘When I said no negotiations, I meant no
negotiations. We know he's guilty; turn him over.’

Don’t need evidence to find bin Laden guilty. Nothing new to South
Central LA. Most of the 56,775 inmates in California’s prisons under the
3 Strikes Law were convicted with little or no evidence, often on the
word of a police officer, or worse still, sentenced to 25 years to life
because 5, 10, 15 years or more ago the evidence was a bargained plea.
57% of these prisoners are African American; this in a state that may be
12% African American. California Courts don’t need evidence to convict.

Simi Valley, 1992, lots of evidence showed 5 white policemen brutally
beating and inflicting permanent damage on a Black motorist. The
evidence was superfluous because a jury thought Stacey Koon and company
were acting in the best interests of the people. Not guilty on all
counts. Don’t need evidence to convict white police who beat and murder
Blacks, need a miracle!

The Bill of Rights, that little document which is supposed to govern how
we do business in the United States of America, says a person is
innocent until proven guilty, and that the accused can face his accuser
in a court of law and that the defendant is entitled to a trial by jury
- a jury of his peers. 

"Turn him over, turn his cohorts over, turn any hostage they hold over,
destroy all the terrorist camps. ... I told them exactly what they
needed to do. There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know
he's guilty. Turn him over," said the president selected by the Supreme
Court. "They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of
speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

Maybe that’s why African Americans wave the flag. Osama bin Laden and
all those terrorist Arabs and Muslims hate our freedoms.

In 1996, Madeleine Albright, then the US secretary of state, was asked
on national television what she felt about the 500,000 Iraqi children
who had died as a result of US economic sanctions. It was a ‘very hard
choice,’ but Albright said, ‘all things considered, we think the price
is worth it.’

George Bush the First, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger,
General Colin Powell, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Ronald Reagan, Elliot
Abrams, Gerald Ford, and George Bush the Second have supported, trained,
bankrolled and supplied with arms the murders of millions in Yugoslavia,
Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda, Pakistan, Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, the
Congo, South Africa, My Lai, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Vietnam, East
Timor, Angola, Cambodia, Guatemala, Grenada, Libya, Palestine,
Afghanistan, and South Central Los Angeles. U.S. terrorism continues to
strike in the States - infestation of crack cocaine by the CIA,
mandatory minimum sentencing, 3 Strikes, the Prison Industrial Complex,
the racist death penalty, institutionalized racism in education, health
care, social services, housing, employment.

Let’s wave our flags for America and stand united with President Bush in
pure presumptuous arrogance because "If you're not with us, you're
against us".

I am an American but until America stops her aggression on my World,
until America humbles herself at the table for peace, and until America
apologizes for slavery, my African American brothers and sisters will
just have to wave that American flag without me. 

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.
Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the
dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and
millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is
that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and
starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that
people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all
the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's
our problem." Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit"

Donna J. Warren is a South Central LA Community Activist and Candidate
for 
the Green Party Nomination for Lt. Governor of California. She ran in
June 
2001 as the Green Party Candidate to fill the seat vacated by the death
of 
Julian Dixon in the 32nd Congressional District.

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Bart Lidofsky [mailto:bartl@sprynet.com] 
|Sent: Wednesday, 24 October 2001 9:27 AM
|To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
|Subject: Re: Theos-World Re: Re: Re: Re: this war & it's cause
|
|
|Katinka Hesselink wrote:
|> Well, I suppose because they share a religion. The mahatmas (Or HPB) 
|> said that religion is the cause of a great percentage (forget which) 
|> of the wars in this world. Seems to me they are right. But other 
|> causes help to contribute.
|
|	And that is my point. They hate anybody who is not a 
|member of their religion, and they hate those (like the United 
|States and Israel) that preach brotherhood between the 
|religions. Period. All else is window dressing.
|
|	Bart Lidofsky
|
| 
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