Shattered Dreams: How Hegemony, Hypocrisy and the Southern Strategy Undermined t

ISBN-13: 9781491250440 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 310 str.

Dr Rufus O. Jimerson

Opis

The purpose of this book is to go beyond the argument of whether Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream of an America where "content of character supersedes color" is fulfilled by the two-term election of the first African-American president, Barrack Obama, or deferred. It looks into why you cannot place the "cart before the horse." In this case, "the cart is a chariot" filled with Obamas and Attorney General (Eric Holder). The horse consists of driving economic and grass root organizations needed to drive a sustained civil and human rights agenda. In the wake of tokenism of holding the presidency, attorney general offices and other temporal-marginal positions of pseudo-esteem, African-Americans outside of elite athletes and entertainers lie deeper in the bottom rung of society. As racial amnesia increases in a pseudo post-racial society, the hegemons or ruling class pushes their surrogates to further racialize social mobility and make blacks' scapegoats for their greed and economic downturns. The book first examines the expansion of racial amnesia that mitigates the role of racism in the nation's past, its continued usage and dehumanization today. Racial amnesia makes American incapable of being empathetic respecting the black experience, which continues to face racism on a daily basis. Perceiving African-Americans as "other," most Americans have been taught to believe that blacks are responsible for overcoming poverty and its ills, as well as Black-on-Black crime. In this context, President Obama and his administration is expected to lead all Americans except "those who look like him" unless he is a racist as conservatives allege. In this context, the definition of racism and racist has be redefined to refer to black's help other blacks and those that "call out" whites or policy that disproportionately victimize blacks. In the hypocritical context, the book examines how the nullification of the Voters Rights Act has set back civil and human rights. The past laws and present initiates adopted by the Obama presidency seen by many conservative Americans as "suspect" at best and a threat to their hegemonic rule are scrutinized. The linkage between racial retrenchment and the racialization of the Obama presidency and its effects on the electorate is analyzed. Questions and evidence is examined respecting whether the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., was ever fulfilled, a claim made by conservatives, deferred or in a progress resisted by those afraid of the rise of a new minority-majority. Manufacturing crises, distortions and categorical lies and character assassination of President Obama down to Shirley Sherrod are highlighted. Conservative media's use of reverse racism is exaggerated to excuse racism against African-Americans and the first black president. Included in the book is how conservative media tried to sell the Tea Party movement as a non-racial reaction to the Obama, the nation's first black president, who was elected and reelected by the new colored minority-majority. They also tried to sell Tea Party's mantra of "small government" with drastic cuts to social programs in exchange for lower taxes for their big money supporters is beneficial to the neediest and most deprived Americans. The book begins an examination of how the Southern strategy and its appeal to "states rights" has introduced socio-political retrenchment measures, like undemocratic gerrymandering whereby more voters vote for Democrats in the House elections and Republicans gain the majority, as well as Stand Your Ground laws that encourage the unaccountable use of deadly force upon unarmed blacks. Homicides are up in states with these laws, particularly among blacks. A major theme permeating the pages of this book is that post-Reconstruction oppression continues to supersede the "content of ones character" despite marginal progress. This token progress includes the election of a black man the presidency twice.