Prometheus 6

In the course of writing this post at The Niggerati Network, I discovered two resources that were new to me.

First was the newspaper from which I got the articles I linked to, The Louisiana Weekly

Welcome to The Louisiana Weekly

For over seventy-five years The Louisiana Weekly has articulated the interests of Louisiana's African-American community. We are proud of our longevity, and hope we have been useful. But times have changed.

It is our belief that life is about education - mental, emotional, social and spiritual learning, and personal growth. The more learning and growth we experience, the richer and more meaningful life becomes. Henceforth The Louisiana Weekly will attempt to represent the interests of our multicultural community in its individual and collective quest for a richer, more dimensional, and meaningful quality of life.

Second was The Schott Foundation for Public Education, which produced Public Education and Black male students: A State Report Card, in which they make a very interesting statement:

It is also our belief that all vulnerable students will benefit when the school experience and environment has been optimized for Black male students.

This is a good point to make. I've said (half) jokingly in the past that the most selfish thing white folks could do would be to support everything Black folks need to really be a part of this nation, because you can be damn sure anything Black folks get white folks will get too. And it could have been done when our desires were just to let us in, man...

There's a limit to all this good will, though. We're perfectly willing to think nice thoughts as long as we don't have to, like, change or anything, you know?

And the fact is, America's economy can't meet the expectations of the mainstream without an underclass that gets less than market returns on its labor. Race is a dead metaphor for this situation. Institutional racism is the economics of the situation explained in terms of the dead metaphor. Personal racism is justification of one's position in the situation in terms of the dead metaphor.

Well, if you want to describe it without pissing anyone off and are willing to drop some nuances, that's what they are.