Prometheus 6

From African-American News&Issues
Black (America) Alert!
By BUD JOHNSON
African-American News&Issues

Have you ever had cause to pause and ponder why African Americans were once derisively called "spooks" by early America's racists and bigots? …

… Denial aside, during an era when Amos & Andy was simply a hilarious comedy, rather than racist propaganda, there was a consensus in mainstream America that described Negroes as a happy-go-lucky people, who could sing, dance and were scared of ghosts. They also were scared to fight, but sho' nuff loved Jesus.

But that was then. And this is now. Conversely, in 2003 America, instead of Blacks being scary people, they are a scary people who strike fear in the hearts of mainstream America. Hence, terrorist threats that cause others to tremble only incite brothers and sisters (living in the land of the free's violent, crime and drug-infested 'hoods) to pontificate: "Hell, we've been terrorized in America since we got off the slave ships."

In essence, homeland security is a joke to citizens who view the world from a Black perspective. Meanwhile, CBS-NEWS.com officially designated Attorney General John Ashcroft "The Minister of Fear" in 2002, and asked the salient question: "Who needs terrorists when we have John Ashcroft to scare us out of our pants?"

"But scaring people is another matter. And it's turning the Department of Justice into "The Ministry of Fear." For sure, the fear factor negates a secure homeland, insofar as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfied says, in one breath, that the war in Iraq has been won. But, alas, without waiting to exhale, in the same breath he warns that terrorist strikes on strategic American targets are still a real and present danger, therefore citizens shouldn't feel too secure in the homeland of the brave.

Thus, new terminology, such as "Code Orange Alert," have become part of our Homeland Security lexicon. Nevertheless, since more-conscious Black Americans have learned to live with terrorism, orange, red, or multicolored alerts don't wiggle our antennae.