Leaving the Past Behind: Impediments to America's Growth as a Nation

[Professor C. L. Sanders]

As I listened to 1380 am in Atlanta today, I heard this kneegro named "Marley" who has made it his business to talk about our President with such disdain and hatred until if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that he wore a sheet but he does not! Rather he represents the new group of negro whom I affectionately refer to in my 2010 book "We the People: Forming a More Perfect Union" as a "Kneegro." Now the premise of this morons' article was that the black folks need to look closely at the Democrats and that the fact that the Democratic Party never backs any black democrats financially! What he never speaks about is the factors that may have been present such as, whether that candidate was the incumbent, whether that candidate was a victim of gerrymandering, and don't get me wrong that this man has the right tovoice his opinion, but it is not the gospel. I wonder why he and others such as himself fail to give us a fair critique of the President instead of disparaging him, and why these same kneegros fail to critique the other white candidate for President? It is almost as if these same persons were retained by the Republican Party to make these one-sided attacks on urban radio, media, and other web sites to divide the black vote during this election season.   

 

An early use in American literature of the concept of immigrants "melting" into the receiving culture may be found in the writings of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. In his Letters from an American Farmer (1782) Crevecoeur writes, in response to his own question, "What then is the American, this new man?" That the American is one who "leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world." Unfortunately, that was then, and this is NOW! Because realistically speaking, the dream for one America is under siege due to impediments in our society.

 

Impediment 5: Knee-Gros

Katrina hit and tens of thousands of our people died as Bush did a drive by in his plane but never landed, you never said a word; You celebrate rapper’s exploitation of our women but attack the activists who speak up against the behavior; Wall Street was bailed out and you continue to be foreclosed on, you never say a word; You want to throw the gays out of the church but your Pastor has his wife on one side of the church and his girlfriend on the other side while preaching holiness, but you look the other way; you are never respected, the police beat you up, shoot you in the back and lie under oath, but you rely on Al Sharpton to stand for you while you hide behind his coat tail in fear of offending the white establishment, sound familiar? Some of us may find my ebonic description of this impediment a bit offensive, but if the shoe fits wear it. Because I make no excuse for my indignation and disappointment of how our leaders, especially our current President has been defamed, debased, and dehumanized by knee-gros in the media and who call into our shows. You may wonder what a Knee-gro is and I am glad that you asked. Based upon my ebonic definition, a knee-gro is any person of color who spends time on their knees allegedly praying to God while displaying a form of Godliness on Sundays, but after church and on any other day, they never grow spiritually or morally thus knee-gro. Now many of them are not really hard to identify, because you can find them calling in to the media talk shows talking about how bad President Obama is, how he cares about all other races but the blacks, he should have gotten to us by now, he should have taken care of his own before he addressed any of these other problems! Maybe some of you are drinking that “Obama kool-aid” but not me because I know what he is about. He is just one of these uppity negroes who is trying to fit into the white man’s world and appease them at our expense. The knee-gro is one who makes all of these baseless accusations while they never get off of their butts and change their lives or the lives of others. It is Obama and “the man’s” fault that they cannot succeed or move forward with their lives, no its because you are lazy, angry, hateful, vindictive, bitter, and make excuses for why you cannot succeed in life. Is it Mr. President’s fault that he decided to have dreams for a better life? Is it the President’s fault that he decided to attend school, keep up his grades, stay out of the clubs, and keep good grades so that he can graduate from an Ivy league school? Is it his fault that America has embraced him, and is it his fault that his optimistic message of hope and unity is contagious? One thing I will not do, and no one else should ever do, Never dim your light so that someone else can shine because they are angry at your success. The same God that I serve, you say you serve, why don’t you stop faking and start believing that all things are possible because all of us who are trying to effectuate change do not attend pity parties, and we definitely do not accommodate haters and their messages. Get over it or step to the left there is too much work to do. Do not ever bring me a problem without a proposed solution, because if you do, you transform yourself into the problem and impediment and lay the foundation for impediment number 6.