Amerika

I was sad to hear of Gil Scott-Heron’s passing recently. He seemed like an iconic figure with much to offer in deciphering the baffling experience of African-Americans.

He chronicled a reality alien to most of the mainstream, and came close to glimpsing the truth: African-Americans suffer most by being pawns for the white liberal.

If we each get fifteen minutes of fame, this was Gil Scott-Heron’s:

Whitey on the Moon
by Gil Scott-Heron

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey’s on the moon)
I can’t pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
Ten years from now I’ll be payin’ still.
(while Whitey’s on the moon)
The man jus’ upped my rent las’ night.
(’cause Whitey’s on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
I wonder why he’s uppi’ me?
(’cause Whitey’s on the moon?)
I wuz already payin’ ‘im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin’ my whole damn check,
Junkies makin’ me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin’ up,
An’ as if all that shit wuzn’t enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an’ arm began to swell.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
Was all that money I made las’ year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain’t no money here?
(Hmm! Whitey’s on the moon)
Y’know I jus’ ’bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I’ll sen’ these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon) – source

This poem is alternately described as “sardonic” or “heart-wrenching,” depending on who you talk to.

Whether it was meant to be serious or not, whitey gave up the moon — and instead of pursuing NASA and space exploration, we’re busy funding the ghettos here at home:

We can’t have Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac collapse, because Black people would be harmed disproportionately. But we can see NASA collapse, because that frees up more money from an already exhausted budget (funding BRA isn’t cheap!) to go toward the never-ending cause of improving the quality of life for Black people.

This might be too much for some people reading this site, but I’m in a vendetta kind of mood. I want to put together a short book (100 – 150 pages) tentatively called We Could Have Been on Mars: But we had to Fund Black-Run America.

All of the money spent trying to improve the academic success rate of Black students over the past 40-50 years has been a monumental waste. The Return on Investment (ROI) for this investment has been, well, it’s hard to qualify, but we have helped a lot of Fortune 500 companies find valuable employees to promote over more qualified individuals.

So we ask you readers to search for the best articles on NASA you can find, detailing the budgets of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Statistics on diversity of the employees would be awesome. Then, help us locate the statistics for costs associated with programs like Headstart and other monetary wastelands concocted to help Black people excel in the classroom.

Costs associated with HUD, welfare, crime (think incarceration, court costs, the need for more police, etc.), EBT cards, and anything else you can think, send it over to me.

We could have been on Mars by now. Instead, we have to close up shop on space exploration and continue funding Black-Run America. – Stuff Black People Don’t Like

He has a valid point, to which I’ll add two caveats:

1. Entitlement funding goes to more people than African-Americans. While the bulk goes to African-Americans, a whopping lot also goes to trailer whites, Hispanics, Asians and mixed-race individuals. Since 1950, the biggest cost increase in government has been the entitlement state, which is now over half our federal budget. The concept of the entitlement state itself is broken.
2. How’s diversity working out for black people? Let’s see: lower life expectancy, higher rate of incarceration, higher rate of victimization, lower income potential. It doesn’t sound to me like diversity is working for African-Americans either; in fact, calling this system “Black Run America,” while funny, is inaccurate since no black nationalist would condemn his or her own people to this. Diversity is broken.

We can look at any information about African-Americans and get outraged, but it’s important to remember that African-Americans aren’t living in paradise. Entitlement programs just cost a ton of money and fail. Diversity also costs a ton of money and fails.

In fact, there is no healthy alternative for black people except emigration to Africa with Western money and technology behind them, so they can recapture their continent before the BRICs buy it up — a process called “soft colonialism.”

What African-Americans are however is prized pity objects for white liberals, who collect them like holy symbols. “But how many impoverished paraplegic African-Americans have you helped today?” they ask. Their number is higher; they are better, more like Bono from U2 and Jesus Christ.

But in the meantime, the point is well made: we could have been doing great things, but instead we’re focused on objects of pity, and paying them to be content and useless while the moon looks on, as if amused.

Tags: race