Electshunned Reflection part 2

You ever noticed how fledgling television networks back in the ’90s always began with a bunch of shows written by Jews starring Black actors and comedians? Have you ever wondered why? It’s because marketing research will tell you Black people are the greatest consumers of mass media. You market your product to Black people because they are the most primed to receive it. That’s the surest way to guarantee a steady stream of eyeballs glued to the television and thus generate ad revenue. Once you’ve established a baseline of profitability, then you apply one of the primary rules of business: continuous expansion and growth. That’s when you start experimenting more with White shows. Undoubtedly, many of those shows will fail. But that’s okay. You still have the n!gga demographic to carry you through the hard times and those first few lean years. Eventually, you will have a hit. And when you do, that will draw more viewers than all your Black shows combined. You’ll be getting ready to watch the Wayans Brothers and then say to yourself, “What the f#ck is a Dawson’s Creek? And why is he wearing a sports jacket in a canoe?” Yep, that urban comedy in the time slot you’ve always known it to be in has just been replaced by a drama associated with White, teen, suburbanite angst. That Hip Hop soundtrack is gone only to be replaced with the soprano of a Middle-Earth, Elven princess. Now, what does that have to with the price of curry in India? I don’t know, but I’m sure Kamala would know exactly how much it would cost.

Seriously though, the above was an explanation of how corporations use Black people and then pivot to reach other or larger, demographics. The same is true with politics. For some reason, Kamala Harris is considered an African-American. In fact, I just heard an ad congratulating her as such. Her father was born in Jamaica. Her mother was a red dot Indian who raised her in Canada during her formative years. Exactly what you think of when referring to African-Americans, right? In any case, what you are going to see in the coming months and years is a pivot. She is going to embrace and promote her “woman of color” status. Why? The Democratic party is going to continue hemorrhaging Black men. It won’t be because of misogyny or misogynoir or other made-up terms. It will lose Black men because of anti-Black and misandrist policy. Losing 15 to 20% of the Black male vote wasn’t enough to tip the scales in places like Philadelphia or Atlanta or Milwaukee, but what about 25 to 30%? Some of those previous voters will just sit out the election while others will vote Republican. The Democrats will need to replace those lost votes because addressing our concerns in a serious way isn’t an option. And they already have the Black female demographic (minus the small percentage who will wake up in the next 4 years) on lock for a song so where do you get those votes? You might be able to get some of it through increasing mail-in voting in future elections and the subsequent gamesmanship (read fraud) associated with doing that. But you barely eked out a victory against the most cartoonishly racist candidate since Ronald Reagan. What happens when they run another closeted bigot who knows how to better contain his racism? You are going to need more votes and the way to do that is to expand, to cater to other or larger demographics. Does that sound familiar? Expect her to lean into that that “woman of color” label as she courts the Latino and Asian vote.

A final note about this election. It does upset me a little when I see Black people dancing or celebrating Biden’s victory? Why? Because I know what intelligent people are doing when they see that. They’re laughing at the rank stupidity on display just like you laughed at those WB shows that carried the network for the first few years. They’re laughing at you and I don’t like it. They know they can do any and everything to us because most of you don’t know you’re being disrespected and dismissed unless the right person is telling you. You have clowns like Van Jones blowing snot bubbles on-air talking about it’s easier to be a dad because of Joe Biden’s win. Well, it certainly won’t be easier for his children to become courageous, critical thinkers with him as a role model.

Let me break this down. The correct course of action during this election was to support neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump. I have never heard a single person, Black or otherwise, give an intellectually honest reason as to why Hoe Biden is Better than Trump. And the reason why they can’t do it is obvious: it’s impossible to do so. Let me narrow my focus to the time period when I think most critics of Donald Trump crystalized their view of him: the 1970’s and 1998’s. What was Donald Trump doing in the ’70s? His best to keep n!ggas out his privately-owned, lily-white apartment housing? What was Joe Biden doing in the ’70s? His best to keep n!ggas out his lily-white, Public Schools that your taxes paid for. What’s worse? Donald Trump was also known for his ad attacking the wrongfully accused and wrongfully convicted Central Park Five in the ’80s. What was Biden doing? He was working on encoding the crack/cocaine disparity into law to help railroad more Black men into the prison industrial complex and keep them there for longer periods of time. He would then go on to author the 1994 Crime Bill to supercharge the imprisonment of Black men. This same bill would expand the use of the death penalty, the same death penalty that Donald Trump argued for. The very same bill that did everything but “hang people for jaywalking.” Again, who’s worse? It’s one thing to say you don’t like Trump because of his boorish behavior, arrogance and personal bigotry. I don’t like him for those things either. If you prefer your racism from someone who pretends to like you more, that’s your business, but own it like they own you.

Anyway, I am going to take a break for a while. I got to rest my feet because I suspect they will be going up a whole lot of asses in the coming year(s).