Don't Drink the Tea
by Chris Stevenson
O say does that star spangled Confederate flag yet wave?
Once upon a time there was a group of smarter Tea Party members. Colonialists in 1773 Boston refused to consume the tea that was shipped to them from Britain and taxed by the British Government because that government was no longer representative of the citizens of Boston and therefore could not be taxed without the consent of their elected representatives (colonial assemblies). Today's so called Tea Party are not that sophisticated; they're just mad because they got a black President. What I'm hearing from them is, 'please stop Obama from helping people.
The problem today with Obama isn't Obama. The problem is he serves during a time of white nationalistic cynicism; when a huge number of whites are more comfortable criticizing Tiger than Roethlisberger (actually that's my next column). Race is such a sensitive issue that a faction of white republicans have formed a whole new political party based on it and even most of them won't admit it.
We've seen this for years actually, that is white people controlling politics based on this type of thinking. Any black candidate voicing publicly what he is going to do to improve the condition of blacks, will be considered as ignoring the needs of whites, by-who else-whites. Any black candidate publicly stating what he or she is going to do for white populated areas of his city or white corporations will be looked upon with suspicion by black voters and will be written off as not having a black agenda. Tea Party is different because it is comprised of regular white conservatives and also former white democrat or liberals who became or were persuaded to join the Tea Party based on disinchantment of the President's... well, fullfilling his campaign promise (you know, the health care thing). I guess they thought he was lying like most guys do when they run for office, oh well.
The fact that this is a black US President is no small factor in the white hot anger of this Tea Party. Black, bi-racial and voted for overwhelmingly by blacks. Think about it, from their perspective it looks like blacks got their way... for four (4) Fing years. Whites don't mind Dave Chappel or Chris Rock joking about this, but a lot of blacks they know in life at work, school, in the neighborhood actually made this happen. That's a lot to swallow for some whites, more than some. Obama was also voted for by a huge chunk of the white voting block in return for an invisible promissary note that the words "race" or "black" won't be uttered through his lips. They feel betrayed, as well as tricked. In their Just-Us Tribunal this HCR is suspected of being Obama's way of insurring over 32 million americans, over half of whom are African American. And he did it without mentioning or talking black.
In truth Obama isn't trusted by two polar-opposite fringe groups within the black community either; black conservatives and far-left black radicals. It is amisdt these people that Barack Obama serves his term under the ultimate white fear. It's a shame too, because their over-thinking and going over Obama's policies with a fine-tooth Afro-pik is making them miss the "Chocolate City" fear. Most old-school blacks remember "Chocolate City," the song and title to an award-winning album by the '70's funk band Parliament. It's a pre-hip-hop tune voiced over by none other than the extremely-witty George Clinton: "They still call it the White House but that's a temporary condition too, can you dig it CC (Chocolate City)?" Read the excerpts I'm writing very carefully because I'm going to briefly explain to you why the music industry suits killed-off political message lyrics like this by creating Disco music.
In this song Clinton was specifically addressing major urban cities with a black population well over 50%: "There's a lot of Chocolate Cities around, we've got Newark, we've got Gary, somebody told me we got LA and we're working on Atlanta. But you're the capitol CC." The chief target city Clinton was invoking was Washington DC, before-gentrification DC. where their black population was close to 80%. Always ahead of his time, Clinton raps through Bootsy's funky bass and Bernie's nasty piano notes: "We didn't get our forty acres and a mule, but we did get you CC... ahhh blood to blood , players to ladies, the last percentage count was 80. You don't need the bullet when you got the ballet."
This song was out during the summer of '75, a time of political action songs, the Isley Brothers' "Fight the Power," Gil Scott Heron's "We Beg your Pardon America," etc. were just a sample of the music starting to dominate both black and white AM and FM radio airwaves and about a year later Bob Marley and the Jamaican Invasion; a whole wave of angry Rasta bands were about to spread their message of political awarness and unrest to America.
The real reason I mention "Chocolate City" is the last verse. The verse where Clinton seems to parody white fear, the fear that I think is similiar to that which formed the Tea Party. Of course Clinton mentions pop-culture icons of that day: "And don't be surprised if Ali is in the White House, Reverand Ike Secretary of the Treasure, Richard Pryor, Minister of Education, Stevie Wonder, Secretary of Fine Arts And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady."
This song simply is one black man's version of how he feels a black President should run the country, correlating the rising black population with the need to know how to leverage this into getting one of our own into the Oval Office. Appoint like-minded blacks to key positions and bring about a black utopia. Simple fantasy. There are some who seriously think President Obama is living out George Clinton's dream (as opposed to recognizing the raw necessity of HCR) and thus the cries of "communism," "socialism," etc. While blacks did politically unite to elect Obama, we are rarely that united on anything else but BS. Call me crazy, but after disco blacks as a whole really started acting, well... funny. This only made us wide open for AIDS and crack. We could have put a black in the White House long ago if we didn't become so individualistic and gaming. So as far as the Tea Party goes, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Just don't drink the tea.
Chris Stevenson is a syndicated columnist, his articles also appear on his blog; the Buffalo Bullet, www.buffalobullet.blogspot.com Follow him on twitter and facebook.
