Pamela's Blog 41

Published on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“Thank You Sandy From Petaluma”

See Determination 29.

by Pamela Satterwhite

When I listen to progressive talk shows it’s almost always the listeners who have the most interesting things to say.

In "Rocket Science Ain't Rocket Science" I touched on one reason I believe this is so: only those that reinforce conventional thinking about ‘reality,’ only those that issue statements that don’t undercut the assumptions on which the class system is based, are rewarded by that system with the designation “thinker” / “expert” / “pundit.” And until we wake up, even the progressive moderators of the very few outlets that we have for progressive discussion, co-sign the perpetuation of the dream, delaying rather than furthering the flowering of the conditions that would seed and feed a general awakening.

In the dream, there’s no such thing as ‘Power,’ i.e. an organized class struggle of a very narrow elite determined to defeat our awakening.

For the official pundits, America may not be a court of law where justice prevails, but, still, there are “checks and balances” – and the pundits present this rhetoric as reality.

The language that the system gives us to use, in order to think about the system, is accepted at face value, unquestioned. And so America is a plurality of interests all battling it out in the arena of ideas – or in the polity – trying to win the hearts and minds of the people by presenting their best case. And the battle of ‘ideas’ is treated as ‘real,’ while the faces behind the scenes, who pull the strings, remain hidden, and are never discussed.

We get glimpses of the truth by those dismissed from the official discourse – on progressive talk shows they occasionally get a hearing, briefly.

So it was that during this morning’s * Sunday Sedition with Andrea Lewis on the radio station KPFA, a discussion of the arrest of Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. by a Cambridge police officer and the subsequent furor because President Obama noted that the actions of the police officer were “stupid” – a word that means “lacking common sense” – it was a listener who made the most significant observation.

Sandy from Petaluma called in and told a story. One day she got off work and went to the bus stop. She’d been on her feet all day and was tired so she sat on the curb to wait. Now Sandy’s a white woman from Mobile, Alabama so, as she said, “I’m well aware of racial profiling.” So she was understandably a bit flummoxed when a blond-haired female cop pulled up to harass her. Unaccountably the female cop was extremely disrespectful. It bugged her so she went to the police station to file a complaint. The cop at the desk matched the harassment of the other cop point for point and tried to dissuade her from reporting the abuse. The whole experience was as confusing to Sandy as it was upsetting so she kept pondering it, resulting in a couple conclusions that she shared with us: “These officers displayed classic symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. They have a military mindset.” These quite profound insights were stepped over unnoticed…as she wasn’t a pundit.

To her credit, the host Andrea Lewis did keep trying to call attention to the apparently flummoxing fact that the mainstream media, not just the right-wing talk shows, are devoting serious time and attention to stories of the supposed upcropping of racist sentiment across the country.

Meanwhile, the pundits all express disappointment that the president, who understands ‘Power’ very well, tries to promote healing between the cop and the prof – disappointment that he still hasn’t solved the problems (like global warming) we elected him to solve, and seems to soft pedal when he should be clearing us a path for easy walking.

When I hear them I must admit I’m a bit flummoxed myself. I mean, what kind of sheltered existence must they lead to not understand that “command exists but with obedience”? Have they never worked? Richard Clarke reported in his book Against All Enemies that the CIA routinely ignored Clinton’s directives. What ‘power’ did Hugo Chavez have until the people rose up?

Is it really just an ‘organic’ upcropping of racist movements within the military, and among “the people,” and in the generalized militarization of the local police forces, that we’re seeing – or could there be people behind the scenes seeding it, feeding it, biding their time, systematically nipping away at what gives us more hope?

What they most dread, these podrunks, is the truth that we – we who do the work – will soon realize that we don’t need them…at all…

…and that we…we who do the work…black and white…and every other hue…know what to do to make this world work, without them…

…and that we who do the work, the hard work, we who work with our hands, actually like each other, have fun together, laugh with each other…

…and that Martin was right: “Black and White together** we shall overcome.”

* July 26, 2009.

** I considered adding in brackets: “…and taupe…and beige…and biscuit…and brown suede…and red sandalwood…” but there’s a sense in which it is Africa and the West that must face each other, the most extreme ends of this insanity, and that if it should ever be that Africa, our Mother, is at last honored for her brilliance, then all Life will be…

…and, there’s a sense, Baldwin’s sense, that the story of Africa and Europe in America is also a love story (a sick one, granted…) – the chief cultural con casting all others.

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Nas2EndWork "Pamela's Blogs":

Pamela's Blog 41

Published on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“Thank You Sandy From Petaluma”