Acting White: Oh! Oh! Accuse Me! Please!

My first thought was that good ole' Ralph Nader was just re-tracing Rev. Jesse’s footsteps, for a little press and a dash of relevancy. No big deal, its just politics, and money of course. Then I thought about it. Hey, he just did Obama a big favor, accusing him of acting white.

Let’s think about this. McCain and his RNC crew are over there trying to figure out how to paint Barack as black as midnight, so as to pull in white folks in traditional ‘he-ain’t-one-of-us’ fashion. Hillary certainly did it. If anyone having credibility with any part of white America accuses Obama of acting white, it’s a good thing. The accusation, regardless of its stupidity, works against McCain’s strategy. Thanks Ralph.

There is also the added benefit that it pisses off the black electorate, and just might deliver more Obama votes come November from that group. It’s a win-win from where I sit, for Obama. Now the best of all worlds would be if McCain, during one of his senior moments, was to accuse Barack of pretending to be white, we could just call the election right then and there. But this probably won’t happen.

So the best for the Obama camp is help from people like Nader and others who ‘keep race alive’, and balance out the ‘acting-all-black-while-being-half-white’ strategy that is McCain's best hope for knocking whites off the Obama train.

Funny thing, race politics.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Me, NASCAR and 60,000 Good Ole Boys & Girls

Yesterday, my teenage daughter, son, and I were treated to our first NASCAR auto race, at Infineon Raceway. NASCAR is the acronym for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and is very popular with working-class Whites, especially in the southern states. So I guess this makes us black rednecks, or at least the r-word is what comes to people’s mouths when I say how I spent my Sunday.

Our host, surrogate Uncle Marc, is a good friend and lawyer who happens to be a Hummer-driving Asian-American, and an auto-racing, hunting, photography buff, and a closet do-gooder(my term). A bundle of uniqueness. His carbon footprint is definite, but his H2 knows an off-road butt-whupping or two; he only kills what he will eat; he digitizes the rest. All of this I can respect.

One friend commented wryly that I was really ‘acting white’. I took this to mean that my weekend crowd was suspect, but I reserve to differ. My son loves cars and racing, so until otherwise proven, these ARE his people. I fell out of my chair when my daughter, unprovoked, asked Uncle Marc if he could teach her how to ‘shoot’. This stuff is contagious! I guess I'm just the guy who teaches her Algebra, and lays awake at night.

My children may ultimately reject these new interests, but it will be of their own choosing, not mine. NASCAR may or may not make my son feel welcomed, but regardless, I will be there, with the aid of friends like Uncle Marc, to present him with a another door to explore. Regarding guns, my daughter will be eighteen next year, old enough fire a gun in war, like it or not she needs to know their safety, if but for avoidance. A helluva' weekend.

Elvis, a southern icon often accused of acting black, has left the building.

James C. Collier

P.S. Great Geico Nascar Commercial!

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Acting White: Angry Blogger, Sider Bar #7

The nightmare continues. Two teens (black) in Minneapolis kill a mother and her son (black), stabbing her over 100 times and bashing her boy’s head with a television. This woman clearly had no idea what she was doing when she let these boys, acquainted with her older son, into her home. Who could comprehend this outcome? Sadly, the fear of blacks youths will only grow from such a horrendous act, and who can deny this logic.

In the last few days I have been criticized for using the word ‘animal’ and ‘savage’ to describe people in this country, and other parts of the world, who kill and injure with pathologies that reach far back into time before the moral leaps of the last century. Black people need to take these words off the ‘banned’ list, because this denial is making the problem worse.

A concerted response is demanded. Everything we are doing, to raise kids who do these things, is wrong. Everything. How they are parented, schooled, disciplined, loved – everything. We need an intervention and the first thing we must do is stop lying to ourselves that the fault lies with others. The Black community must take responsibility for this behavior.

I suggest one long time out. No more BET, parties, singing, dancing, or drinking. No drugs, no fast food, and no sex. No football, basketball, track, or hangin. No dressing up at church. No SUV’s, no 21” rims, no gansta’ anything. And no cell phones. And then use the time figure ourselves out. This is most serious.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Angry Blogger, Side Bar #6

I’m a bit angry this Father's Day. I spent real time over the last two days jousting with my white brethren over at Mangan’s Miscellany. The blogger, Dennis Mangan, is a grumpy white guy frustrated with the impact blacks are having on the quality of his living. After getting to know the man, I count Dennis as a friend worthy of the effort to see through his frustration to what he is about - separate from many of his followers.

The other day he wrote a blog about the Philly platform murder of a white man by black youths entitled, “Open Season on Whites?”. I commented that the fear whites have today of blacks is similar to the fear blacks had of whites in the past. He and his readers took this as excusing the behavior, which it was not. Anyway that is not my point - go to the site if you want to see the flood gate I opened and my stand.

However, what pisses me off is to hear today about four “negroes” in Philly who robbed, assaulted and raped a white woman in her home, netting $600 in the gruesome process. I’m with Dennis and the Field Negro on this – where do I buy a chance to pull the switch on these animals? The nuance of my words don’t mean shit when you think about that poor man and woman in Philly.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: I Hate The Word Savages, Nevertheless...

I have a visceral response to the word ‘savage’. I have seen it used by whites to describe blacks and their behavior, as if whites have never committed anything of the sort that could ever measure up. What we know is that there are no new atrocities invented by trailing societies. The leading edge of inhumanity has always come from those with technology, be it guns, germs, or steel, to borrow a phrase.

So when someone uses the term I immediately go into laser-lock mode, but not today. Tanzanians and Kenyans are hunting, killing and dismembering their own people, whose only prior misfortune was to be born an albino. Life is already difficult to be missing protective melanin in the most sun-baked place on the globe, but now they must worry about their countrymen killing them for the ‘magical powers’ of their body parts. So I will say it – savages. Not black savages, not African savages, just plain savages.

All are vulnerable, especially albino children. Savages (I will not call them men) come in the night with sharp blades to harvest these poor souls, so that witch doctors can make potions that will bring alleged good fortune to their clients. Unbelievable! Believe it! If only humanity could be ashamed of itself to a proper level, but evolution does not work this way.

Whether our ancestors, black or white, killed for these savage reasons 500 years ago, or 5 days ago, the issue is not who is capable of such atrocities, but rather what we can do to stop it, immediately!

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Obama, The Candidate

The challenge of making assimilation of advancing behaviors a legitimate goal in Black minds cannot be understated. This legitimacy is needed from the earliest age, even before babies say their first word or take their first step. It addresses the paradox that is alive and well in the Black community – the quest to be individual ‘first’, while the group hangs on to behaviors that keep too many near last.

Nowhere is the legitimacy of Black opportunity questioned more than in the ability of the country to elect Black leadership, particularly a head of state. Until this happens there will always be the lingering question of whether it is a forbidden position. If the ultimate dream for a little White boy or girl is the presidency, is it also a bona fide dream for little black boys and girls? Barack Obama’s success as a candidate squarely proposes that America is ready to express the full confidence and reward for ability and hard work, regardless of race. Blacks can no longer claim de facto second class citizenship, and Whites are no longer automatically guilty of hiding a superiority agenda.

Throughout his campaigning there were questions from all sides on whether Obama was Black enough, or too Black for consideration. Many people rightfully challenged the questions themselves, but like it or not, they represent the state of thinking. Race does matter in America, but does it matter enough to elect reduced leadership, with the consequences this brings to our lives? In the end, after all of the politically correct and incorrect airings, Obama showed that he is indeed a Black man of mixed heritage, but not one whose ‘baggage’ precludes representing everyone enthusiastically. It may be that because he was born of two ancestries, one black, one white, he reached a harmony of the two that aides his leadership ability, and just maybe the country's too.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Nothing But Nets Prophylactically speaking …

After five years, I just removed my yellow LiveStrong wrist band - the one that started it all. I wore it because I'm a cyclist and my sister had breast cancer. Long after it became a tired cliché for doing good and 'being cool', it was a still the simple statement that I wanted my sister to live. She inspired me to raise other monies to fight breast cancer and to ignore the rainbow of imitation bans that followed.

My sis is a cancer survivor now and it is great to hear her rail about how we ignore Vitamin D while the cancer 'industry' is raising boatloads of money to try to cure something that is better prevented. Every solution must start somewhere and for me it was partly that faddish, stupid, overblown, piece of yellow rubber around my wrist.

When I first saw the Nothing But Nets promo I thought, oh brother, not another catchy campaign to save the world for a few bucks! But that is just what it is, a simple swat at malaria, which kills a million children in Africa each year. The promo reminds me of one of my favorite words, prophylactic. It just means protection by way of a barrier. A Haitian auto-mechanic friend use to always joke that a 'Jim' should not forget his ‘Jimmy-hat’. He was speaking prophylactically about prophylactics. Of course I kept looking around for my baseball cap – like a dumb-ass.

The inexpensive nets are a barrier to the malaria carrying mosquitos that infect 500 million people every year. Like the buck people gave to wear yellow and fight cancer, the nets are not a cure-all, but they are on the road to a real solution. Kids are good hucksters because they can understand saving other kids like themselves, via netting that reminds them of indoor camping. We better watch out, the little buggers just might grow up to be caring adults. Wouldn’t that be payback?

James C. Collier

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