I think that we are left with being Philosophical about those Blacks who willfully, knowingly aide and abet attacks upon the collective. The only way to keep folk in line is for them to see folk of that ilk pay the wages of their “sins,” as it were. I used to think that some Black folk were simply ignorant; that they just didn’t know. Now I know otherwise.

I always think of one of my favorite movie lines from “Romeo’s Bleeding:”

Roy Scheider’s character says, “Jack (Gary Oldman), you know the difference from ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. You just don’t CARE—and that’s perfectly natural.”

That’s why I can see the poetic justice in his audience turning on him. Whitlock and others just like him seem entirely oblivious or indifferent to understanding that his audience is hardwired to hate him, nonetheless, despite him maybe one day falling victim to them a la David Berg (I think that was his name though he wasn’t a turncoat, if memory serves).

T3: You always come to mind when Mona Dimarkov (Lena Olin) has Jack digging a grave for Scheider’s character. Scheider is less pissed about his fate, as opposed to were in NYC it is. Scheider does an excellent job of channeling your disgust, which is one of the funnier things in life.

Big Man: Whitlock’s piece on Wiley, whose work I thoroughly enjoyed, was the first I’d ever read of his and, perhaps, is why—on occasion—I suffer through a column or two of his—despite doing so, often is like sifting kernels of corn from excrement, lol. No question in my mind that Ralph would be greatly disappointed were he alive to read some of the crap Whitlock has penned and, I’d bet he’d tell Whitlock not to use his name in association with him.

Once again, I think that it’s less an issue of folk being complicated, but rather them being indifferent to ‘right’ or ‘wrong’—or, them simply finding the word ‘integrity’ a quaint, antiquated notion. After all if no one is going to hold you accountable, what’s the point? You can delude yourself with the twisted notion that you’re doing right and give a sincere performance to boot! But if no one brings you to task, what does it mean? In other words, had Black folk not lost their sovereignty and their ability to hold the ranks accountable, it’s unlikely that we’d see the likes of a Clarence Thomas or Condi “I’m a war criminal too!” Rice. They’d just know better.

I think that those folk straight Jedi-mind trick themselves in order to get that check and all it can buy—or, in those rarest of cases, they may just still be slaves.

Folks are complicated. I’m guess Whitlock really feels like he’s fighting the good fight. Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice probably do too. Shit, Michael Steele might feel the same way.

People believe all kinds of stuff. I remember Whitlock wrote a really nice piece about Ralph Wiley and I emailed him my appreciation. I wonder if he thinks he’s carrying on Wiley’s mantle. I wonder how he sees himself. That’s the really important thing, how people view themselves. Because as long as folks are convinced they are doing the right thing, they’ll never change.

We have been saying this same stuff about you for years. Don’t flatter yourself mang.

One love?

Is that a joke?

That’s what I’ve been saying to you since 2006.

Show and prove.

C’mon man this is not even insulting any more.

I want to see you with your CEDW glasses on. Maybe then you can rock something substantive that could be entertaining as well instead of speaking to the cave grunts.

That’s not your stee though right?

I understand.

You know, your peers that come here, do so with open eyes and crisp minds. I just hope you’d do the same but you know, that’s cool.

You ain’t entitled to.

Take care big guy.

But I do love it when I spark Mizzo to break out his extra big thesaurus and turn into Cornell Eric Dyson West with a laptop.

One love,

JW

You honestly think that just because you write a nice column every once in a while, a column that by the way still traded on the cheapest stereotypes about people and made a ham-fisted obama joke, that you can spend your valuable column space, space that real talented writers and not shiftless hacks like you would kill for, on clowning every black athlete and stepping and jiving for the white men who sign your paycheck?

Let me make this clear: I wish you ill will. I hope you get fired. I hope you can never receive another job in journalism again more meaningful than throwing out typewriter ribbons. You hear me?

Just curious. I imagine Mizzo must have some way to confirm, but it would be a shame if Mizzo went all “Hit em up” on Whitlock only to find out that it was DavidMac or something……