{"id":236,"date":"2008-10-29T13:42:08","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/them-blacks-fearmongering-at-i.html"},"modified":"2008-10-29T13:42:08","modified_gmt":"2008-10-29T13:42:08","slug":"them-blacks-fearmongering-at-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/them-blacks-fearmongering-at-i.html","title":{"rendered":"“Them Blacks”: Fear-mongering At Its Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rumors<\/a> that  black people are likely to riot after next week’s election is the lowest form of fear-mongering<\/a> yet by Obama’s opponents. The sleaziest ones go so far as to say that  regardless whether Obama wins or loses black people are going to take to the streets in a wild frenzy –
\nwhether it’s in celebration of an Obama win or outrage at a McCain upset. The inference is the same: Black people (and Obama is one of them, remember) can’t be trusted to conduct themselves in a civilized manner when put to the test.  <\/span>And, oh yeah, as more than one anti-Obama voter has left in the comment <\/a>section of my blog, whites would be wise therefore to take cover and avoid areas of their city where blacks are known to frequent lest they end up the victim of black violence. On radio<\/a> and on television in recent weeks more than a few white voters have expressed some fear over what blacks are likely to do next
\nweek.
\nI can’t say exactly why this one gets to me. <\/p>\n

Of all the cheap, ugly, lowdown, racist, and yes even sexist, stereotypes that have circulated during this whole election cycle, this one about blacks rioting hurts most. This is not just Barack Obama, but the whole black race that’s being talked about. Drumming up memories of 60s riots by blacks over racial injustices in the country don’t compare with what’s happening here in this year’s presidential election.
\nBut at this late date in the campaign, it’s not about truth or reality or ethics. It’s about winning. By any means necessary. If reasoning with voters doesn’t work, then tapping into their deepest, most irrational fears about black people will do, seems to be the logic of some.<\/p>\n

Here’s what gets me: We have white skinheads caught by the FBI in a scheme to assasinate the black presidential candidate along with dozens of innocent black students. We have a young white woman who finds someone to punch and slap her around and leave bruises on her face so she can claim she was attacked by a black male Obama supporter. We have whites growing angry and
\nrowdy at McCain\/Palin rallies, yelling “Kill Him”<\/a> when Obama’s name is mentioned. But never mind any of that. It’s black people who are violent and a threat to the commonwealth.
\nI don’t dispute that the black community has its share of ugly violence to address. But black communities are not the only ones suffering from this disease.  America is a violent country. Period. Americans learn early on how to use violence, and the threat of violence, to get our way. We have an epic entertainment industry that plays on our fears of others and that feeds on our fantasies of doing away violently with those we fear and who oppose us.<\/p>\n

May those of us committed to progressive, righteous thinking step up our efforts to persuade everyone around us that not only is violence an immoral choice, but fear-mongering is a losing strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rumors that  black people are likely to riot after next week’s election is the lowest form of fear-mongering yet by Obama’s opponents. The sleaziest ones go so far as to say that  regardless whether Obama wins or loses black people are going to take to the streets in a wild frenzy – whether it’s in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\n"Them Blacks": Fear-mongering At Its Worst - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/them-blacks-fearmongering-at-i.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Them Blacks": Fear-mongering At Its Worst - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rumors that  black people are likely to riot after next week’s election is the lowest form of fear-mongering yet by Obama’s opponents. 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Weems is a nationally-renowned theologian and an ordained elder in the African Methodist Church whose scholarly insights into modern faith, biblical texts, and the role of spirituality in everyday lives have made her a much sought after author and speaker. Dr. Weems, formerly a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt Univeristy and Spelman College, has been celebrated by Ebony Magazine as one of America's top 15 preachers. She is founder of Something Within, a consulting service providing guidance for women of faith interested in connecting with their inner wisdom as well as interested in balancing faith and work, and their values with their vocation. Dr. Weems is a popular radio and television personality, regularly providing expert commentary on religion, gender, race, and sexuality. A guest speaker for numerous national gatherings of religious, civic, and sorority organizations, local churches, community wide events, and radio and television programs, Dr. Weems is in much demand as a speaker, preacher, and workshop leader. Ebony Magazine named her one of America's top 15 Her work as a scholar and a religious thinker has led to invitations to serve as a panelist for Bill Moyer's 1995 PBS award-winning Genesis Project, for various A&E, BBC, National Public Radio, the Michael Baisden radio show, and Hallmark cable programs on topics as wide ranging as miracles in the Bible, women, violence, and spirituality, and male-female relationships. She appeared on \"FlashPoints\" with Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill to discuss matters related to religion and public life. Dr. Renita Weems is the author of several widely acclaimed books on women's spirituality and wholeness: Just A Sister Away (1987) and I Asked for Intimacy (1993), Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God (2003), and, more recently, What Matters Most: Ten Passionate Lessons from the Song of Solomon (2004). Her special talent is in drawing life inspirational wisdom from stories in the Bible about the triumphs and failures of ordinary people. A former contributing writer to Essence Magazine back in the late 80's, she has recently renewed her relationship with Essence with an article appearing in the December 2004 issue entitled \"Sanctified and Suffering.\" Dr. Weems writes a popularly bi-monthly e-column for www.beliefnet.org which focuses on matters of love and relationships. She has been particularly active lately speaking to professional women's organizations about women's spiritual values and support systems, juggling family and work, work and love, and women finding a balance between their spiritual values and their professional aspirations. She taught from 1987-2004 on the divinity faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN as a professor of Hebrew Bible. She served in 2003-2005 as the William and Camille Cosby Professor of Humanities at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Ordained an elder in the AME tradition, Dr. Weems has written about the waxing and waning of faith all believers endure on the spiritual journey. Her 1999 book Listening for God: A Minister's Journey through Silence and Doubt (Simon & Schuster) won the Religious Communicators' Council's prestigious 1999 Wilbur Award for excellence in communicating spiritual values to the secular media. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and her Master and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Finally, Dr. Renita Weems lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and daughter. Her readers can keep up with Dr. Weems by visiting her her blog, SomethingWithin.com, which allows her to keep in touch with readers interested in exploring women's values and interested in conversations about faith, love, values, and inner wisdom, and other topics of interest to what Dr. Weems likes to call \"thinking women of faith.\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/rweems"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}