Unless arthritis is among his old age botherations, the only plausible reason for President Joe Biden’s refusal to sign an executive order to create a reparations study commission is that he’s confident angry Black voters believe the fugitive slave act is still in effect.
‘Sleepy Joe’ assumes we’ve been politically pimp-slapped so much since 1964 that we are too giddy to realize we’re still being played (prostituted).
Actually, Biden previously hinted at that actuality, long before his infamous pre-election statement to an African American talk show host that you’re not ‘Black’ if you don’t vote for him.
It’s commonly assumed most politicians are liars, narcissists, or naïve.
There’s a consensus, however, that all of them inertly believe, as Donald Trump once posited, that most voters are gullible pawns.
Trump was bold enough to announce he was running as a Republican because its voting base was ‘dumb’ enough to elect him.
If you remember, 45IQ started off as a Democrat, supportive of abortion, and a strong supporter of the Clintons.
Yet to single out Trump as a flip-flopper is at best disingenuous since I can’t think of a single politician of either major party that hasn’t ‘gone with the wind’ when it became politically expedient.
In fact, most African Americans support the Democratic Party today because President Lyndon B. Johnson did a ‘180’ when the political soap opera script called for it.
Before the 1960s, most African Americans supported the GOP, as it was the party of Lincoln and the catalyst for civil rights.
The Democrats were the party of oppression, repression, and apartheid.
Believe it or not, the Republicans pushed for reparations following the Civil
War. At the same time, Democrats blocked it at every turn, including establishing the KKK and birthing Jim Crow to undermine Black empowerment.
Biden has been around long enough to master that political game, including pimping Black voters and flip-flopping on issues.
Thus, I find it just short of incongruous that so many tribal members today are expressing surprise and disappointment that Biden talks the talk about systemic racism but doesn’t walk the walk.
While running for office, the future president expressed support for HR-40, a bill initially introduced 30 years ago by the late Rep. John Conyers to fund a commission to ‘study’ reparations to address the legacy of slavery and American apartheid.
To some, it was a classic case of flip-flopping. For a minute, however, I had hoped to blame it on amnesia.
As a ‘community elder’ myself, I can attest that memory loss often comes with an overload of wisdom—or old age.
But seconds later, I had to dismiss his age and instead note that Biden is not only a master of double talk and misdirection but also has a history of flip-flopping that rivals Trump.
Apparently, the Democratic Party used mass hypnosis after the primaries to get us to forget Biden’s record on school desegregation, criminal justice, and reparations. Instead, we opened our eyes and saw John Brown asking—demanding—our vote.
Regarding reparations, Biden is a typical Democratic—a left-of-center missionary.
In other words, he’ll espouse four-syllable rhetoric to convince us that he’s an abolitionist champion of justice, equality, and inclusion when he only plans to add links to our ankle chains.
He never actually supports measures that would empower our tribe or lessen the grip of the poverty pimps.
A prime example came a year ago when he spoke out against the atrocities committed against the victims of the Tulsa massacre, a ‘dark page’ in American history when a mob of bigots murdered hundreds of Black men, women, and children.
Biden was quite elegant in his rhetoric, but he never expressed support for providing the remaining three survivors with reparations.
His speech on the 100th anniversary of that tragedy hit all the right notes, but it again proved most Whites of Biden’s era don’t have rhythm.
In fact, as it was noted by several angry attendees at the event, the president never even used the word ‘reparations.’
That point was brought up again last week when a multi-religious coalition staged a Juneteenth Day demonstration in Philadelphia to pressed the issue of reparations.
Under the banner ‘Rise Up for Reparations,’ the event brought together Muslims, Christians, and Jews for an unprecedented religious caucus to call on the president to pressure Congress to support HR-40 or create a commission through executive order.
As a coalition member, Rev Naomi Washington-Leapheart explained, “we are here to kick off a faith-based moral movement for reparations.
She said extensive research has revealed the obvious: the lingering trauma of slavery carries over into the succeeding generations.
“The residue of slavery still runs in my veins,” she said, “so reparations are needed.”
Washington-Leapheart’s words were obviously not loud enough to penetrate Biden’s hearing aid. Either that, or he is too busy or distracted to pay attention. Biden’s African American press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told the media last week you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting on the president to do the right thing. He’s focusing all his energies on finding a solution to the gas problem.
Some of us took that to mean he’s full of it.
Apparently, so are many Black ‘leaders’ who now express shock and dismay that the president is reneging on his ‘promise.’
And again, my head is shaking, not out of disappointment toward the president, but instead toward those who expected Biden to use the power of his office to advance a measure that could reverse the fortunes of millions of African Americans.
Had I the opportunity, I would have explained to the ‘disappointed’ and insulted Black pawns that history is the best teacher, and one lesson we’ve yet to learn is that political promises are like fleeting.
Once he received the party nomination, we were supposed to forget that Biden once opposed abortion, blocked school desegregation, and supported the most racist criminal justice ‘reform’ measure in American history.
He hid behind President Barack Obama’s opposition to reparations for eight years and only expressed support when he needed to energize the Black vote.
But this episode of ‘All my Chillins’ isn’t over.
I figure after he reads the tea leaves, Biden will sign an executive order to coincide with the mid-term elections. He realizes Black folks are the only hope the Democratic Party has to slow the momentum of the GOP and voter dissatisfaction with inflation.
I theorized the White House will wait before taking that step as it needs time to reassure White America the commission will not bear any fruit.
Instead, it will be met with fanfare, but soon find itself under that same rock they placed the plan to provide our ancestors with 40 acres and a mule.
Hotep
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