Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 6:00 PM
To: Faculty
Subject: White Hist. Prof ed on Obama Death Threats

 

 

 

Of interest to history, sociology, criminology, humanities, social work,
psychology and other disciplines.  One of our CMM graduates and former
public affairs reporter Jovani Fox sent it to me.

 

 

Know Justice, Know Peace,

Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor of Communication

ASU FSA Co-VP for Faculty, AEJMC MAC Officer

Alabama State University, 915 S. Jackson St.

Montgomery, AL 36101-0271 PH:334-229-6885

Thanks in advance for your research & creative activity referrals:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin

 

With all my  heart I want work that I love; for abundant pay; in a
beautiful, functional, comfortable environment; with/for kind,
competent, happy, supportive people who love, enjoy and appreciate me
and I they. Ashe.

 

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Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College
in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph. 

 
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It? 

For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race
problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have
been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for
their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African
Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we
White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin
color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes"
should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in
"Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche
of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to
do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you
may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk
the talk." 
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once
again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood. 
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies
and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative
whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight
Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and
pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any
headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of
presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them,
yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on
their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the
perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress
Jody Foster. 
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the
sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that
we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America
anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But
instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are
talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama." 
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long
before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the
whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and
for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?
How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that
white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over
our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality
with non-whites? 
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the
head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we
white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the
latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? 
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start
making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag
burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks
exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate
themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough
to become President of the United States, only to threaten to
assassinate them when they do?  
How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds,
both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and
that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight? 
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever
elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll
live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But
here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in
the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and
the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white
people. 
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear
saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature
about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to
see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in
spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE
overcome." 
************************************** 
It takes a Village to protect our President!!!