So I'm the gym, right? Just on the treadmill minding my own business climbing what feels like the never ending face of Kilimanjaro and I am interrupted in my focus by the unmistakable self-important voice of Bill O'Mutha-Fuckin-Reilly. I am already uninterested because I know whatever he has to say will not only infuriate but also nauseate me as I am heavily engaged in a very physically demanding task. Unfortunately, however, I was far too engaged in this physically demanding task to even think of pausing for the cause of finding the nearest remote. Thus I was at Massa O'Reilly's mercy. My only hope was that the anger brought on by whatever unabashedly biased conservative nonsense he was about to spew would fuel me to Hulkish feats of physicality. That day must have been my lucky one because he just happened to be doing a segment concerning Sally Jacobs' controversial biography entitled The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father. THIS is what I saw:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2011/07/13/new-book-profiles-president-obamas-father
The optimist in me wanted to think that as a journalist he would perhaps relate this story to the widespread absence of father figures in so many children's lives. The revolutionary in me figured he would just say all black fathers are merely selfish, womanizing, drifting sperm donors as proved by the life of this authentic, straight-off-the-continent African. Much to my surprise he didn't do either one of these things. His main concern was that of demonizing Pres. Obama's father. That's it. He barely even cared to talk about what was actually IN the book. He didn't even care to address the TITLE in its entirety. He just referred to the "reckless" portion and tried to completely omit word "bold" from the conversation. Thank God Ms. Jacobs was unbiased enough to refrain from imposing any similar character judgements. She maintained her impartiality but O'Reilly was far from put off, calling the man a fraud, a dead beat and even a "sociopath."
Oh, Bill was crying "Shame!" all over the place. Talkin bout some "How could a man abandon his own child?" and all this other buck nekked bull shit. Let's be for real for a second Boss Hog O'Reilly--all this outcry of yours didn't have a DAMN thing to do with the shamefulness of a man abandoning his own child and leaving a woman to raise a man all on her own. This postmortem chastisement that you are so weightily dishing out is about a couple other less noble factors:
1. Why would this impetuous African, after having the ESTEEMED and undeserved privilege of mounting a white woman's vagina, leave behind a perfectly novel (and thus, more appealing) half-Negro baby.?
2. HOW does this perfectly novel and forsaken half-Negro manage to grow up without his father (who was albeit a failure) and become the FIRST black man to hold the highest position in American government?
Now y'all are probably saying, "De De T, how do YOU know what homey had on his mind when he was running Barack Sr. through the ringer?" I will tell you how I know. I know because I don't see him doing any segments on Jay-Z's absent father. He's not wondering where Erykah Badu's daddy was. He wasn't up in arms about Ricky Williams' abusive daddy. And where was his scorn for Tyler Perry's paw? Nowhere to be found, that's where. People like Bill O'Reilly could give a fuck about all the fathers out there who abandoned, abused or neglected their black children. I doubt he even cares about the white children whose natural fathers left them behind.
Bill O'Reilly's "concern" is based upon sheer bewilderment. He and many like him are absolutely floored by the fact that this ONE black child made it so far up the white man's ladder without the presence of a father figure in his life. Sure, he could grow up to be a singer/dancer/rapper/athlete/high-profile criminal/mayor of Detroit without an adequate father figure to show him the way, but PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?!? Oh HELL no. That kinda crazy shit is unheard of. Fatherless black children are supposed to have very limited futures. The rule is that if you can't sing, dance, rap, shake your big black ass, play ball or slang dope there is NO WAY you as a black fatherless child can hope to survive in the white man's America. How in the HELL can a patiarchal society founded on white privilege and the nuclear family unit hope to impress such a falsehood upon black children now? Looks like all those tightly woven fabrics of systematic oppression are finally unraveling at the seams, huh?
I guess it's back to the lab for the white patriarchy...
P.S.: If you want to read an IMPARTIAL interview about this book try this
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=137553552
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2011/07/13/new-book-profiles-president-obamas-father
The optimist in me wanted to think that as a journalist he would perhaps relate this story to the widespread absence of father figures in so many children's lives. The revolutionary in me figured he would just say all black fathers are merely selfish, womanizing, drifting sperm donors as proved by the life of this authentic, straight-off-the-continent African. Much to my surprise he didn't do either one of these things. His main concern was that of demonizing Pres. Obama's father. That's it. He barely even cared to talk about what was actually IN the book. He didn't even care to address the TITLE in its entirety. He just referred to the "reckless" portion and tried to completely omit word "bold" from the conversation. Thank God Ms. Jacobs was unbiased enough to refrain from imposing any similar character judgements. She maintained her impartiality but O'Reilly was far from put off, calling the man a fraud, a dead beat and even a "sociopath."
Oh, Bill was crying "Shame!" all over the place. Talkin bout some "How could a man abandon his own child?" and all this other buck nekked bull shit. Let's be for real for a second Boss Hog O'Reilly--all this outcry of yours didn't have a DAMN thing to do with the shamefulness of a man abandoning his own child and leaving a woman to raise a man all on her own. This postmortem chastisement that you are so weightily dishing out is about a couple other less noble factors:
1. Why would this impetuous African, after having the ESTEEMED and undeserved privilege of mounting a white woman's vagina, leave behind a perfectly novel (and thus, more appealing) half-Negro baby.?
2. HOW does this perfectly novel and forsaken half-Negro manage to grow up without his father (who was albeit a failure) and become the FIRST black man to hold the highest position in American government?
Now y'all are probably saying, "De De T, how do YOU know what homey had on his mind when he was running Barack Sr. through the ringer?" I will tell you how I know. I know because I don't see him doing any segments on Jay-Z's absent father. He's not wondering where Erykah Badu's daddy was. He wasn't up in arms about Ricky Williams' abusive daddy. And where was his scorn for Tyler Perry's paw? Nowhere to be found, that's where. People like Bill O'Reilly could give a fuck about all the fathers out there who abandoned, abused or neglected their black children. I doubt he even cares about the white children whose natural fathers left them behind.
Bill O'Reilly's "concern" is based upon sheer bewilderment. He and many like him are absolutely floored by the fact that this ONE black child made it so far up the white man's ladder without the presence of a father figure in his life. Sure, he could grow up to be a singer/dancer/rapper/athlete/high-profile criminal/mayor of Detroit without an adequate father figure to show him the way, but PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?!? Oh HELL no. That kinda crazy shit is unheard of. Fatherless black children are supposed to have very limited futures. The rule is that if you can't sing, dance, rap, shake your big black ass, play ball or slang dope there is NO WAY you as a black fatherless child can hope to survive in the white man's America. How in the HELL can a patiarchal society founded on white privilege and the nuclear family unit hope to impress such a falsehood upon black children now? Looks like all those tightly woven fabrics of systematic oppression are finally unraveling at the seams, huh?
I guess it's back to the lab for the white patriarchy...
P.S.: If you want to read an IMPARTIAL interview about this book try this
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=137553552
No comments:
Post a Comment