The Final Call

Black America’s abusive relationship

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(FinalCalll.com) - OMG! Did you hear the latest about Chris Brown, comedienne Jenny Johnson and a nasty Twitter beef sparked by an unsolicited Johnson comment about Brown? She called him a worthless piece of excrement, he responded.

An attempted knockout came as Johnson shared she had little respect for Brown because of domestic violence against singer Rihanna. Johnson lambasted Brown last year over the 2009 incident. She called Brown “a violent criminal.” Few things seem to have struck some nerves like the Rihanna-Brown connection. Their apparently reignited relationship has led to dismay, criticism Rihanna is not a good example for young girls and women and declarations that any physical confrontation should doom the aggressor.

Interesting that so much is invested in two young entertainers constantly watched and whose lives and problems make money for others. Not to downplay the seriousness of domestic abuse, the horrible problem of young girls beaten by boyfriends and the need to respect women, let’s consider this: If Brown is never to be forgiven, should be discarded and shunned, let’s apply the same standard to another abusive relationship—Black America’s quest for White acceptance.

That domestic abuse relationship is over 400-years-old and anyone who says separate from the abuser is looked at as insane. Between “I can’t live without White people” and “They don’t oppress us all the time,” Black folk pray for a change of heart that hasn’t come and ain’t on the way.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade, slavery, Jim Crow, Black codes, segregation, rapes, lynchings, police beatings, incarceration, medical experiments, poverty, racial profiling, discrimination, stereotypes, disrespect, plots against organizations, the deaths of Black leaders, and a litany of destructive acts don’t seem to matter.

Somehow the same people who never taught us or treated us right will one day say “my bad” and attempt to make everything good. Affirmative action died under Bill Clinton, “the first Black president,” and incarceration skyrocketed. Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, favored shipping Blacks out of America and said if the country could be preserved and slavery maintained, break out the shackles and the chains. While John F. Kennedy greeted Martin Luther King, the FBI spied on the civil rights leader and tried to destroy him. The FBI’s Cointelpro targeted the Nation of Islam, Black Panther Party, Us, Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee and others, decimating leadership and crippling our struggle. Not to mention the “discredited” CIA crack cocaine loop that brought the drug into Black neighborhoods through CIA-connected Nicaraguan drug dealers working with Freeway Ricky Ross, and a 1980s crack distribution network. The CIA denied any truth to reports by late writer Gary Webb and they wouldn’t lie to us.

Clinging to hope of change is one sign the victim remains under the control of the abuser. At least Brown apologized, pleaded guilty, went through counseling, was punished and tried to make amends—what has White America done?

(Final Call editor-in-chief Richard B. Muhammad can be reached at editor@ finalcall.com. You can also follow him on Facebook and @RMfinalcall on Twitter.)