typingwhileblack

The Republicans have no intention of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

They know better than most from the exceptionally good, comprehensive healthcare they enjoy as members of Congress that affordable, national coverage makes sense – from a public health, national security, and economic standpoint. This has been researched and documented repeatedly by legitimate national and international news outlets and academic institutions.

What the Republicans actually intend to do is steal credit for the Affordable Care Act: for the pragmatic, intelligent, decent things about the Act itself, and for the diplomacy, legal expertise and hard work that went into getting it passed.

“Rebranding” is the term the President-elect has used in reference to the Affordable Care Act, and that is your very big tell about what’s actually going to happen. It’s code for steal any and all credit for anything the country’s first black president has done in an effort to obliterate his record.

Why? Because Republicans and the red states they represent cannot let go of their long-standing and deeply pathological need to define themselves as superior to, and the sole owners of, people of African descent and all their achievements, and so they  absolutely cannot stand the fact that  the country’s first black president led the way to national healthcare in the United States.

In other words, the Republicans are hating. And this faux attempt to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act is, unfortunately, more about vindictiveness and hatoration than it is about actually doing the jobs they have been elected to do, which is to serve the best interests of their constituents. If they were serving the best interests of their constituents the party would be working with all stakeholders in the Affordable Care Act to make it a global model of national healthcare for other countries to admire and emulate rather than working against it which instead has other social democracies around the world shaking their heads in dismay.

Unfortunately, there is a long precedent for the Republican agenda – for stealing, raping, co-opting, killing (either literally or figuratively), tarring and feathering, stringing up, lynching (high-tech or otherwise), castrating, displacing, defrauding and/or mass incarcerating anything that black American people do. Our efforts are simply too great a reminder of how resilient we’ve proven to be in spite of appalling odds (about which no one knows better than white men as they created them – one thing they can take credit for); how creative and hard-working we are; and how committed we are to practicing democracy that benefits all people, not just white and/or wealthy people.

It is, apparently, simply impossible to overstate the profound, colossal insecurity and sense of inadequacy that black achievement inspires in many white American men.

In order to continue engaging in sadistic acts against the environment, against women, children, and people of color, it is nothing less than imperative that people like the Serial Assaulter of Women-elect Donald J. Trump and his fellow Republicans actively work to define us the problem: either as advantaged over them due to affirmative action, OR as lazy, violent, drug-addicted, welfare criminals that they have no choice but to kill, mass incarcerate, defraud, tar and feather, string up, castrate, defraud, and displace, while simultaneously stealing of ours whatever they can. It’s kind of interesting isn’t it – given how lazy and hapless we are, how come we seem to nonetheless produce so very much that white folks want to steal and/or take credit for?

There is a final point I want to make that, based on the news I watch and read, and the conversations I overhear in restaurants, at work, and during my commute, I feel many people who support democracy and decency have either missed or are in profound denial about: so vindictive, so insecure, so violent, and sadistic are men like the Serial Assaulter of Women-elect and his party members, so deeply committed are they to furthering their agenda of destroying black life in the United States, that they are absolutely prepared to compromise democracy for EVERYONE if they have to.

In other words, if, in order to take black people’s right to vote, Republicans have to do the same to you, they WILL. If, in order to take black people’s houses and equity, Republicans and their pals on Wall Street have to sell you a bad mortgage, then take your house and wealth too, they WILL. If, in the process of threatening, intimidating and maligning us in the workplace (provided we’re able to find jobs in the first place) they end up threatening, intimidating and maligning you in the workplace – they WILL. If they have to vastly increase tuition to keep us from getting an education, and end up bankrupting you with student loan debt in the process – they WILL. If they have to do business with dictators, distribute fake news that results in gunmen showing up at pizza parlors, and destroy the environment in order to poison our communities and end up poisoning, killing, and enslaving you – they WILL. If they have to flood our communities with drugs and many of you also end up desperate, homeless sick addicts as well (hey, collateral damage) – they WILL.

And though for many years this pathology has been perpetrated by faces (Paul Ryan, Jeff Sessions) who may remind you of your fathers, uncles, brothers and sons, and it has, to date, been directed at targets (people of color, women) you may have been able avoid, do not delude yourselves: these folks are coming for ALL OF US – our rights, what little wealth most of us have left, our environment, our homes, our joy, and our lives. The extent of the self-hatred, which is at the core of their need to hate on others, is simply too deep and too entrenched and awful AND fueled by an equally pathological sense of entitlement NOT to spill over into the general population in ways that have, and will continue to be, devastating for the country.

We watched Face The Nation as a family this morning, which featured a panel made up of a young Muslim woman, a young Latina woman, the African-American woman author of The Warmth of Other Suns, and the white male author of Hillbilly Elegy. The discussion was led by John Dickerson who for some reason was working on this holiday which was taken off by most of the other network “stars” who not too unsurprisingly were sat in for by people of color (have you ever noticed who’s driving the buses on holidays and weekends? Be that as it may, we commend this network for the show despite the likely low listener numbers on this New Year’s Day.

Each of the panelists’ task was to describe from his or her experience what it is like to be members of their particular racial, ethnic, or national group—I believe that the context for this discussion is the presumed hostile climate anticipated in the Trump administration, but I don’t remember for sure whether that was stated—I was enjoying my eggs and bacon, and had already begun to “turn off” the discussion when I heard the premise of the panel and its composition. Now why would I do that—after all, this prime time Sunday morning show is ABOUT US and back in the early days of my life, we were thrilled to have any such political or social attention—we even enjoyed Amos and Andy (at least many of us).

Well, here’s the deal, and I realize that as a black person I have only a narrow ledge to balance on lest I fall off into “unconstructive” or “incomprehensible” or angry oblivion. We are more discriminating than we used to be, so here’s my take on the panel.

For starters, the panel leader, Dickerson (whom I actually believe is generally very good on this program, was the “neutral,” “normal” white man—it was just the 4 “ethnics who were there to talk about their thoughts, experiences and feelings; remember, the hillbilly elegist was a very particular white man whose plight as an Appalachian was I guess the equivalent of the other three panelists. Dickerson as the moderator evidently was there to pose questions at the panel, not to represent his ethnic background—oh wait, true real obvious mayflower whiteness is presumed not to be anything except “ normal” so it needs no ethnicity or anyone to speak for its experience.

Yielding to my imagination, I thought wouldn’t it be refreshing (as long as it didn’t cause me to faint and fall into my eggs) if the beleaguered panelists of color (not actually, if we think of the whole world) rose up as one and demanded that Dickerson represent his “ group” and talk about how ingrained but breathtakingly unacknowledged whiteness leads to the life struggles that they were describing via institutional racism that is so alive and well in America? Even as a peripheral move, if the ethnics could have asked about the hillbilly elegist’s presence I think it would have added much-needed depth to the conversation, particularly since he can do something they can’t, namely use his whiteness to merge into the same world Dickerson inhabits so successfully and comfortably. Some attention was paid to that though when Dickerson and the elegist agreed as one that even if hillbillys escape, they take it with them internally. But unless the elegist keeps a name like Clem Hatfield or something, nobody knows where he came from on Wall Street or Harvard unless he tells them, while the other three panelists get to have disturbing ego-draining encounter experiences the rest of their lives regardless of accomplishments.

Wouldn’t it be great if panelists of color summoned the courage to demand that their white cohorts participate more fully in defining what it’s like to be white, the assumers of power and privilege, and with the right to oppress?

NOTE: Typing While Black welcomes this guest blogger!

Everywhere I turn, TV or radio, political commentators and others are discussing Donald Trump and what kind of president he is going to be. Most are basically expressing deep fear about what he is going to do, and many of those express the hope that he will behave differently from the way he did during his campaign. Another variation of this theme is the fervent belief that all citizens should “give him a chance”. These people I think see themselves as “constructive” and I think have the hope that giving him a chance might change his behavior.

For me, it is painful to hear all of it because it just sounds weak – yes, weak – and a naive response to a man who obviously thinks that he is smarter and, more importantly, tougher than everyone else. His street bullying of his 17 Republican rivals reinforces that view, and his outrageous name-calling of Hillary (along with stalking her in the second debate) reinforces that, and do you know what else reinforces this view? All of the fine statements from the sitting President, from Hillary, even from people like Elizabeth Warren who have congratulated a man who in essence said he would not do the same if he lost.

To pile on a bit, a man who never divulged his taxes, a long-time custom among presidential candidates, is making distinct, easy-to-interpret noises that his children of all people will manage his presumably vast business empire, the same bunch who are part of his transition team! Can anyone NOT imagine the grave potential – the insider information potential in this – but so far, there has been minimal outcry in opposition.

The point of this kvetching? It’s this: there is every indicator that the president-elect is a socio-path, that he has intimidated and scammed the presidential election process just as he has scammed large numbers of Americans over the past five decades. A core feature of psychopathic behavior is bullying and intimidating and breaking the accepted behavioral norms of a society and the serial assaulter of women-elect has done that in spades. Another core feature is lying – repeat, colossal distortions of the truth – made boldly and publicly and often unrepudiated – sometimes because of fear, sometimes because his behavior is so out of bounds that “nice” people who have been brought up (sometimes too harshly) to conduct themselves as members of society who respect their peers and the usual rules of that society (like stopping at red lights even if no one else is around) literally can’t see the psychopath until he has been so outrageous and has inflicted so much pain that it is unavoidably and unmistakably the case that he has ruined you and your life. The smoother psychopaths are good at professing friendship and concern for your best interests which clearly the president-elect isn’t bothering with.

A key axiom is that words, and appeals to morals and laws, justice and fairness – the standards that normal people apply to each other in disputes – simply do not work with psychopaths. They must be stopped – by action – whether it’s physical, legal, social, or political – or some combination of all of these. Otherwise, they think you are weak and don’t have the will. This is what we face now, as Trump pretends his humility after meeting with President Obama, or puts on a good face with Stahl, even as his words and body language scream that nothing has changed. Did we hear him deny that he knew about the street demonstrations and struggle to blame them on “paid agitators”?

All I ask is that in the “constructive” responses and the congratulations to Trump’s victory leaders and pundits show, in their words and appearances (body language) that they at least know who they are dealing with and will use any means necessary to impede and stump the Trump juggernaut (deliberate word selection) because there wouldn’t be so much public angst about his election if people didn’t have well-based fears about where the Trump machine wants to go.

Note: Typing While Black welcomes this posting from a guest blogger.

Purple a combination of blue and red.

The blue of streams, rivers and lakes that used to be lead-free because the people who were here before the rest of us showed up didn’t hate themselves or nature. Middle Passage blue. Nina Simone Plain Gold Ring blue. Blue walls of silence blue. The strangulated blue of people who know they live on borrowed time, at the expense of nature and off the backs of other humans, and who consume to suppress their fear of the end: credit cards, cars, kitchen renos, malls, zombie movies, shoes, porn, drugs, cable channels, oil, guns, More More More How Do You Like It How Do You Like It?

And red. Dust of the American South red. Coca-cola (have one and a smile and diabetes) red. Redwood tree red. Rape culture red. The red of that yet-to-be acknowledged century of mass rape to create a workforce after the slave trade was abolished. Because it was good for business red. Because old habits die hard red. Confederate flag & McDonald’s & GOP red.

Purple messy. Purple America. Purple create, it agitate, it gyrate. Purple workaholic. Purple huge. Like Brother Prince, who never mistook cynicism for intelligence and didn’t have time for it anyway because he was too busy looking messiness straight in the eye and creating something out of it, and in the process doing arguably the most important work there is to be done on earth right now: fighting off the genocide of the imagination.

The house that Prince built got room for everybody: lady cab drivers, Baltimore, the man who died of a big disease with a little name, 17-year-old boys high on crack toting machine guns, Cynthia with her mismatched socks, a waitress named Dorothy.

It’s got 7 billion rooms and counting.

No one’s checking birth certificates at the door to Prince’s crib.

It ain’t in no gated community, and there ain’t no damn wall around it that some real estate blowhard told anyone who would listen that he’d get someone else to pay for.

The house Prince built got a hook to hang your Raspberry Beret on and a nice garage for your Little Red Corvette. Breakfast Can Wait but if you hungry there’s Starfish and Coffee on the stove, maple syrup and jam on the table, and plenty of butterscotch clouds and tangerines for dessert. There’s enough to go around on Planet Prince. And there’s Space: for you to Batdance, go Strollin’, Come, or talk Musicology. There’s even room for fear and ignorance because they’re part of this cosmic hot mess just like everything else but just to be clear: they not spinning the records. Not here. There’s simply too much to do – dancing to be done, lives to be saved, ping pong to be played – too much life to be lived to be scared of everything, of anything come to think of it.

I’ll probably never figure out What Silence Looks Like, but I’m pretty clear what American genius channeled 24/7, 365 in service to all things love and messy and human looks like: it look like Prince. I loved that man’s spirit. And he loved us in all our messiness back. Something fierce.

Everyone in Indian Summers, PBS Masterpiece’s latest epic set in Simla toward the end of the British Empire’s reign of terror (oops, I mean “twilight era of the British empire” like the website says) is Hot. Even the ugly people are beautiful. Even the – gasp – Untouchables are educated and well dressed. One Untouchable gets invited to a fancy party hosted by the Viceroy of India Lord Fumble Dork (kidding! Noooooo idea what dude’s name is) and hits the dance floor with the Viceroy’s wife, and it’s clearly the most action she’s seen in years. Jaya, another Untouchable, has a lippy pout and fabulous enough tresses to give Julia Roberts’ Pretty Woman’s freshly fucked locks (FFL) a serious run for their money. Even dead on the coroner’s table after being bludgeoned to death Jaya looks good. Indian businessman Ramu Sood, who’s accused of killing her, gets beat up by the British police (Indian Lives Matter! Not!) and he still looks good too with his big goo goo eyes and thick hair. Dang! How do those colored people do it?

In addition to being hot, the characters all have The Intense Smouldering Stare. Maybe it’s a pre-requisite for hotness? Dunno, but stare they do – longingly into each other’s eyes and at each other’s butts and lips, at the gorgeous scenery, at themselves in the mirror. The British characters, especially the dudes, have this Jesus Christ I Can’t Believe How Important I Am stare too (especially when having to deal with – sigh – unruly natives like Gandhi) and I get it ‘cause I can’t believe they’re so important either. Most of the Indian characters sport a Damn Am I Really Getting Hosed This Badly by a People Who Just Started Bathing stare, which I also get, and at one point or another ALL the characters have the Does Anyone Else Get Where This Story Line’s Headed And if So Could You Let a Brutha Know stare. My dad and I had it too sitting in the living room trying to figure out what the hell was going on, especially the first four episodes.

Just about everyone and everything Swoons and/or Sways in Perfect Lighting. The Eat Cakes (young European and American women looking for husbands) swoon as their lovers hoist up their frocks and take them from behind. Afterwards, they smooth their hair and get back to the very serious business of ordering the Indian staff around, their aforementioned flowery shifts swaying on their lithe figures as they storm about. In the markets, where the tropical light filters just so, the vibrant, multi-colored fabrics sway in the 120-degree breeze. On the estates perfectly coiffed trees and shrubs provide just the right amount of swooning greenery cover for illicit lovers to meet and suck face.

And suck face they do, y’all. I mean they are doin’ it and doin’ it and doin’ it well! Why pay for Cinemax with all of this on PBS? Was Prince’s Do Me Baby playing in the background when Aafrin and Alice finally decided to Get Down On It (to quote noted post-colonial scholars Kool and the Gang) or was that just me? I’m not mad – somebody’s got to do it but what, no one has a job? Cramps? Malaria? The only person who isn’t getting after it is missionary Doug Raworth. He’s got a serious love thang for Leena Prasad, one of the staff at the orphanage he runs. She’s got the fever for him too but the vise his social climbing wife Sarah has got his nuts in is just too tight – for now. Everyone else is busy, busy, busy though!

Is there any plot other than The Nasty you ask? Well, not so much – or, rather, not that’s worth mentioning anyway. Mostly it’s the same ole same ole – British government officials knocking back a few cocktails and raping and pillaging and stealing their way across yet another place other than England (for how this works out for them please change channel to CNN and see Afghanistan, Iraq and a couple of other hot spots). If you’re looking for a way to keep the summer lovin’ going and ward off the shorter days, colder nights thing though, Indian Summers is it!

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