Semantics 101

[Cynique]

Well, February is underway, ushered in by the ground hog seeing his shadow, an event signifying  six more weeks of winter. February also signals the start of African American history month, an observance which sets aside 28 days every year for blacks to  extol their icons, recognize their unsung heroes and bitch about the shadow  cast by the racism that represents the ongoing "winter of their discontent".   

 

 White racism is indeed  at the core of black discontent, even as it sometimes takes a back seat to black freedom.   Poster Xeon spoke about blacks being free to do all the things they deem necessary  to advance themselves, if they  so choose.  Conservative columnist, Shelby Steele, was a tad more cynical when he recently wrote about freedom catching blacks by surprise, leaving them off-balance and unable to cope with the loss of victim-hood, something similar to what the father of black history month, Carter Woodson, mused  when declaring that if blacks couldn't find a back door to enter, they would rip out the wall and make one.    

 

On a more personal level it strikes me as disturbingly ironic that  it is not unusual  to  watch the local news where on any given night  impeccable black news anchors enunciate the daily toll  of black-on-black crime, offenses that run the gamut from children being caught in the crossfire of drive-bys, to elderly people being robbed and assaulted, to respectable hard-working folks  having their autos carjacked.  Any black Chicagoan choosing to explain this self-imposed genocide is free, however,  to blame it on  white racism.  And there's nothing more stunning than having black intellectuals publicly debate the nature of racism.  As is the case with perennial malcontent, Cornel West,  accusing angst-ridden Ta-Nehisi Coates of being a whitewashed neo-liberal who has a masochistic fetish about the pain of systemic racism. White publishers pay these 2 big bucks to take advantage of their freedom to dissect white racism.

 

Meanwhile back at the circus, the Freak presiding over a bunch of clowns under the white house big top, cruises along, throwing the constitution under the  bus. In the course of  delivering a state of the union address full of half-truths and self-praise, Trump became the object of disdain to black law makers who took advantage of their freedom to refrain from applauding his drivel. 

 

 Troy reminds us that humans all belong to same big family, so when siblings exercise their freedom to accuse and abuse each other, this family obviously becomes dysfunctional.  Welcome to America, land of the freed slaves.

 

Bottom line, what they say about freedom not being free can't be denied.  Freedom is a double edged sword because it allows whites  the freedom to enforce racism.   What blacks really need is to be liberated from the freedom to be manipulated.

 

[Delano]

I have read this twice but the freedom to be manipulated has me stuck.

[Cynique]

@DelLOL. Good point.  Obviously there are all manner of manipulative forces out there:  the many branches of the media, self-serving black leaders, paternalistic white liberals, political parties with hidden agendas, religion and its greedy expectations, - all examples of the duplicity  which blacks are free to resist, but which their minds aren't liberated enough to inconvenience or obligate themselves by doing  what would be to their advantage in the long run.   They are sometimes their own worst enemy.     IMO

 

 Semantics can involve the intricate use of language, a style i was free to employ in writing this post. I'm sure many will think i needed to be liberated from doing so.  

 

What word, if any, would you have found more coherent than "manipulation"?  Or do you totally disagree with my contention?  

 

 

[Delano]

 Seems paradoxical 

 

What blacks really need is to be liberated from the freedom to be manipulated.

 

[Cynique]

It is a paradox, - one of my own making, and it can certainly be disputed and challenged.

[Delano]

Thanks

[Cynique]

@DelBelow are 3 different definitions of paradox.

A paradox is a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true.

A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to a self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. 

A paradox involves contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time.