Baa Baa Black Sheep

By Eddie Griffin

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Unfortunately, we find ourselves fighting a resurgence of racism behind these all-out anti-Obama attacks. Giving aide and comfort to the racists is the Republican Party. When protesters start spitting and calling black congressmen “ni**ers”, then it is time to draw the line in the sand, and ask: Where do you stand, if you stand at all?

It is not about the Healthcare Bill. It never was. It is about those who declared, at the very beginning, they hoped President Barack Obama would fail. In other words, the newly elected black president could do nothing right in their sight, because their hearts were already hardened. They hide among the sheep, cloaked behind political charades, spewing anti-administration rhetoric, while openly plotting subversion. We are not blind.

To A Black Sheep

Bah bah black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, Yes, sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my dame,
One for the little boy
That lives in the lane.

This was the way Texas school children learned it. With it, white children taunted us. It was compulsive reading, like the story of “Little Black Sambo”. At first grade, how were we to know?

Racism can be hidden in the heart, as easily disguised as literature, movie, or political causes. It has been used by evil oppressors for centuries. But wherever it has been beaten back, it has resurfaced, more viciously than before, along with a movement toward revisionist history.

People forget that Texas was the last Confederate state to fall, June 19, 1865, over two years after the Emancipation. Some parts of Texas never flew the Union flag, and still carry the Confederate flag to their holiday ceremonies.

Black folk in Texas are not deaf, dumb, blind, or fearful. If anything, we are patient. We have seen the same scenario played out in history, over and over again.

For example: It was no secret to us why so many Texas courthouses were burned during the 1870s, and marriage license records, land ownership, and vital statistics destroyed. This period of lawlessness in Texas, formerly known as the Wild West, forced Negroes to fend for themselves against white terrorism.

We see it resurface again, on the eve of the healthcare bill vote, reminiscent of 1950s Birmingham, Little Rock, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas. It is like a resurrected evil thing that cannot hide its long tail.

They really showed their tails the other day, in Washington, D.C. Jackasses all over the place like humanity has not seen since the beginning of the Civil Rights Era. If anything sealed the deal on the Healthcare Reform Bill, then surely it was a stand of bravery, against these racist threats and hateful remarks.