I’m sure I’ll be
rhetorically crucified in cyberspace by the American Negro. I am almost positive this text may have an
adverse effect on my personal, and. possibly, professional networks and even my
occupation. But I must do this. I must write this. I must continue writing this piece in order for
me to rid myself, and my constituency of an internal and explicit hypocrisy. A few times a year I travel to scholarly/academic
conferences and listen to presentations of the numerous nuances of the ills of
the “Black American Community” or the “Black Problem in America” or “What
Blacks Need to Do Better” and I get disgusted, fidgety, and begin to feel out
of place. Just as out of place as I did
when I was in elementary school when I was always the only Black kid in the
class, or at recess, and, sometimes, at lunch.
The majority, in my opinion, was the other. I guess you could say that I had
reverse-xenophobia.
I always feel socially
uncomfortable with the gullible or those who revel in media interpretations of
an event or an individual. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. was a man of principles and a man of flaws. Just like Barrack
Hussein Obama. Except King’s social
infidelities are more widely known because of J.Edgar Hoover (i.e. whore mongering,
marital infidelities, sexual deviances, if you will—he allegedly patronized
prostitutes per Hoover and the late Rev. Ralph Abernathy). Yet, we all must understand, that Obama, just
as Dr. King, is and was human. I fear
that too many of us laud these men’s secular accomplishments and deem the two
to be deities in a sense as it pertains to the Black American struggle and pseudo-triumph
over U.S. racist institutions (i.e. social, economical, and political).
I have been mildly
entertained and hugely perturbed by cyber-debates that give analyses as to
whether President Obama should be publicly sworn into office on the nation’s
reserved federal holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the analogous anecdotes
of irony that have inundated Facebook posts and the Twittersphere. Many believe that it is only fitting that the
first Black President of the United States is being sworn in on the King
holiday and will be sworn in with a bible which once belonged to Dr. King to
take the oath. The ironic thing to me is
that we, as a very informed and knowledgeable audience, are even comparing the
two men. One is a prophet at the least
and the other is a politician at best.
One dedicated his adult life to the Black Civil Rights Movement, as well
as the Poor People’s Movement and the anti-war effort concerning the United
States’ involvement and occupancy of Vietnam, and the other is a politician
whom, whether it is in his heart or a mere political agenda to sway voters, has
fought for women’s and LGBT rights and is a warmonger by default (no U.S. politician can
be elected Head of State without a plan for “national security” which is
political jargon for U.S. protection via war and the possibility of war).
Regardless of how much
symbolism the two men have in American and Black American History, neither one
of these men, in my estimation, would have or wants to be deified by the public
as a Negro messiah. Whether we like it
or not, considering most Black Americans are Christians, neither King nor Obama
are Jesus Christ. King did not die for
our sins and I seriously doubt Obama plans on it either. But both men do bring a static, and,
sometimes, fluid symbolic metaphor of the struggle and triumph of the American Negro—liberation from physical
enslavement, the lynching of Jim Crow, the dismemberment of occupational
strongholds, ethnic redlining in real estate, and the desegregation of schools
across the country, and Black politicians, and, now, a Black President. The aforementioned has deconstructed the
narrative of these two men, and their symbolic representations of the Black
American struggle and experience in America and recomposed it as a myth of
sorts. No one individual or idea of an
individual garners as much reverence in the Black community as Jesus, Dr. King,
and now, Obama (Growing up, every Black grandmother I knew had a painting of ‘The
Last Supper’, a portrait of Jesus and Martin Luther King on their living room
or dining room walls).
Matthew 24:5 (KJV)
states, “For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and I shall
deceive many,” which is indicative of
how many Black Americans, particularly Generation X and Baby Boomers, have
posited both Dr. King and President Obama—as saviors of the entire race. Not to say that King was a false prophet or
Obama has a malevolent political agenda, but these men should not be lauded as
a Christ or a messiah who the Black Americans have been waiting for. What these men are and represent is the
Chocolate Horatio Alger Theory embodied in their rhetoric and the social and
political courses of their lives. Each
wanted change. One for his people. One for his country. What’s ironic is that King was Black and
Obama is of mixed heritage. Does that
not cover the gambit? And the
ideologies of both men seem to be a way of compensating and being individual
freedom fighters for people of all ethnicities that reside in the U.S. of
A. King used social change and the
injustice of Blacks in America to affect political change (Civil Rights Act of
1964). Obama used politics to affect
social change (his public support of Same Sex Marriage in the summer of 2012).
On this day, January 21, 2013, before
comparing ideological beliefs and the social relevance, importance, and impact
of these two symbols of the Black existence and contribution to the United
States, how about we all just reflect on those invisible, Black backs that
paved the way, often times with blood, sacrificed their time and efforts and
intellect, and, sometimes, their lives like a Christ-like figure should or
would that, if not for them, we wouldn’t even know Martin or Barack. In Chris Rock's stand-up comedy movie "Bigger and Blacker", he juxtaposed the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I. G./ Biggie Smalls with the killings of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and President John F. Kennedy. Rock says that King, X, and Kennedy were assassinated, yet, in comparison, as for Tupac and Biggie, "Them niggas got shot." Maybe we shouldn't elevate the poster children for Black achievement and Black change as deities. Maybe we should laud those daily grinders and grassroots workers as our sociopolitical heroes--be it your pastor, teacher, local community activist or civil servicemen, or parent(s). In the end process, those who oppose the totality of human equality and opportunity will always subscribe to the ethnic hierarchical structure of the U.S. that has perpetually posited the Negro as an outsider and holistically inferior. And if you asked them about King, or Obama, they'd say, "Them niggas got shot." King literally and Barack metaphorically in that he will always be wounded by and bogged down with the weight of having had been the second coming...of Dr. King.
-Gee Joyner
