And you thought that Rupert Murdoch might ape a repent after his New York Post's "war crimes" depiction of President Obama as a "dead chimp" lost its "plausible deniability."
That would be a Hell No!
Instead, on Monday night Murdoch's top rated Fox TV show, 24, used its power of "plausible deniability" and the public airwaves to show a group of camouflage wearing, machine-gun toting, axis-of-evil loving, White woman slapping, "angry Black men" from Africa, taking over the White House and threatening America and the free world in what could only be described as a Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, and Sean Hannity "wet dream from hell."
Especially when the "Black male terrorist" leader slapped the White female President in the face in the White House, THEN holds a knife to the throat of a young White women who just happens to be her daughter, threatening to cut out her eyes and off her nose!
We all know what the historical revenge fantasy is and what's supposed to happen to a Black man for not just slapping but for even being accused of "offending" a White woman, or looking at her the "wrong way" or for "not listening" to her -- that Black man hanging from a tree like a piece of Billie Holiday "Strange Fruit," or dragged away by the cops or behind a pickup truck, body parts scattered this way and that.
Mr. Murdoch, we know that you (and your evil twin, Silvio Berlusconi) know that even White liberals, spiritual people, lovers, co-workers, employers, teachers, etc. are vulnerable to acting on perhaps less obvious types of self-relevant revenge fantasies or urges (except for the cop fantasy). Not just conservatives. Sadly, you can see it coming in the look of contempt on their face, in their "shiny eyes," and hear it in the sound in their voice when they think that they, a friend, or even a total stranger has been "offended" by a Black man, or if they just feel like playing victim and self-exonerate by projecting their own guilt, anger or fear on him and then like Fox and Murdoch, turn that Brother into a "threat" or bogeyman who needs to be scapegoated and twenty-foured (24'd).
Empirical studies repeatedly find that a widespread unconscious bias exists among the population that it is more acceptable to treat Black males in an aggressive, punitive, disrespectful, and/or abusive manner than White males or females and/or that Blacks are more adapted to such treatment. Other findings show widespread inability to either recognize the disparately negative treatment of Blacks and/or emotionally respond when it actually happens. And then there is the well documented history of fear, jealously, and/or contempt of "black masculinity" among substantial segments of the White male and female population.
These types of behaviors are consistent not only with '24' and "Fox News Fundamentalism," but with White Spiritual Supremacy and fundamentalist and extremist applications of both Land.mark Forum training and similar Murdoch influenced "self-empowerment" and/or Anglo/self-centric psychological codes. Extremist and fundamentalist followers of these "hyper-individualism" codes, like holocaust deniers, deny the socio-historic victimization of Black people, especially Black men, by both White men and women.
Instead, they see it as the Black man self-inflicting his own psychological and emotional wounds and "victimhood," and that there are adequate and active remedies in a "democratic society" to correct residual injustice. These White privileged views not only facilitate and mask both personal injustice and vengeful treatment of individual African Americans. They ARE injustice.
And they are injustice even when practiced by Blacks, who in order to get along, let alone prosper in a White majority society, must acculturate and accommodate to contagiously transmitted HAPPY VICTIMIZER codes to one degree or another (e.g., imitate people who engage in cruel behaviors, etc., because they connect their cruelty to their apparent happiness, success and freedom). Ask yourself the question: "In how many areas of life do White people need Black people to economically survive and thrive, and what percentage of the population do you think that comprises?" Now compare that to the situation of Black people regarding reliance on Whites and White run institutions. Just do the math. That's an important reason why Land.mark or LF type groups have diverse participation. Such incestuous trending networks can be mutually beneficial and profitable on numerous levels, if not spiritually and sexually seductive with their promise of bright new "shiny eyes"
On the downside, however, they are fertile ground for transmitting the "happy victimizer" meme, especially as regards the cruel treatment of "outsiders." This cruelty is too often ratified, sanctified, and/or mimicked by those "people of color" who are "insiders" of those forums and groups and personally benefit through their active and/or passive complicity with the "happy victimizers" with whom they commune. But then of course they get to practice ONE of the most seductive powers of all - the one that ties and binds us all to our slave and segregation past and present -- the WHITE POWER TO EXCLUDE.
Mr. Murdoch, you know that a house divided against itself cannot stand. So you gleefully support the extra measures taken by the fundamentalists, conservatives, certain "Christians," "spiritual" or Land.mark folks, and even avid Obama supporters, to punish, stereotype, segregate, slander, cast in a false light, libel or otherwise treat an "offending" Black man like an "inconvenient truth," i.e., somebody who needs to be "cut off" and "kicked to the curb." Or like a "vampire spook" who needs to be metaphorically beheaded for allegedly violating their "emotional freedom" or "boundaries," i.e., their expectation to be treated by that Black man as a superior, spiritually "more evolved," and that their feelings of being offended take priority and have a superior claim over the hurt and suffering they themselves helped create, yet deny.
This is so even when these "superior" and "more evolved" "self-empowerment-trippers" are totally unconscious of their narcissistic expectation, their erroneous assumptions about the "offender," and/or their own behavior. It's just too much a part of the water in which we ALL swim, and you know it Rupert! That's why you exploit these socio-historic vulnerabilities. You know what's supposed to happen to a Black man that refuses to "play dead and stay buried."
Like you, your fellow fundamentalists, extremists, and "superiors" possess the same secret "self-empowerment" creed, which is simply, "I am, therefore your are." And like you, they get nasty and vindictive when they get "offended," i.e., when their unilateral dictates are not slavishly followed by anyone they subconsciously or consciously consider a subordinate. Their tolerance for such "insubordination," especially by a Black man who refuses to submit to their socially and institutionally sanctioned, "shiny-eyed" supremacy, is non-existent. Yet, their sense of self-righteous, sanctimonious indignation at that Black man's imagined offense knows no bounds.
Just watch and see how they abuse their asymmetrical institutional power to assassinate his character, spread false rumors, and attempt to destroy his reputation and career with Murdoch's mark of "plausible deniability." Yes, even those who may have pulled the lever for Obama and don't even watch '24.'
You can see it in how they often aggressively pursue other "people of color," particularly those who share aspects of their fundamentalist code and vocabulary, to serve as their lovers, friends, heroes, confessors, and/or advisers in order to self-exonerate their previous injustices, prove to themselves and others that they're non-biased and support diversity, maintain their sense of moral superiority and spiritual supremacy, and/or to fulfill yet another "fantasy bond" again. If this was not so, then why do they mainly seek out echo chambers and/or so readily segregate or abort those whose vocabulary and code do not fit so neatly into their well scripted package?
For Black men, these "petty tyrants" (ala Carlos Casteneda), "haters," and "happy victimizers" aren't simply abusers who inflict distress and suffering. Nor are they examples to follow, even though they appear successful and happy and their happiness and success seem connected to their cruel behavior. Rather, these "Ashley Toddlers" are potential vehicles for our transformation and liberation. That's how we must compassionately deal with their injustice, even as we suffer it, confront it, grow through it. Even though they can be dangerous and vindictive when we challenge their expectation to be treated as our "superiors."
Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to identify injustice, challenge and confront it, practice "right relations," i.e., justice, ourselves, and find creative ways to experience, express, and spread joy in our lives wherever, whenever, and with whomever we can. In other words, be wonderful and wonder-filled. I've recently discovered tools to help me feel that joy and wonder from the inside out.
My favorite is reconnecting to that 5 year old boy I once was, celebrating Christmas and singing carols before the first lesion in my consciousness was created by the cruelty of my mainly Irish and Italian Catholic classmates. But even before we're able to find that joy we must find ways to make amends with those with whom we have treated as "inconvenient truths" ourselves. The alternative is to reproduce injustice and spread the seductive syndrome of the "happy victimizer" and its opposite twin, the "unhappy moralizer." In other words, Brother, we must outgrow the sanctified smallness of "happy superiority" and create something new, from the bottom-up, knowing that it already resides within the solace of our souls.
Friends, please try to understand and be open to what I'm about to say. Consider this possibility: Having a "fantasy bond" and feeling a heartfelt connection with Barack, Michelle and the kids may enable you to feel a "fantasy bond" or connect with Black people. And you might also pray, meditate, go to Church, and "shine your eyes" regularly to boot. But that doesn't mean you somehow become exempt or inoculated from manifesting implicit race bias/association or from enacting supremacy, superiority, narcissism, and "happy victimizer" roles in your interactions with us.
This is why Obama's closest friend and ally in the Cabinet, Eric Holder, said that we are a nation of "cowards" when it comes to dealing with and talking openly about race. He deliberately chose such an "inflammatory" word to challenge us to leave our comfort zones, hyper-individualistic, and hedonistic practices behind and make a radical break with the racial status quo ante. Obama is calling for us to have courage and immediately transform and repair our interracial relations at the interpersonal level, i.e., from the bottom - up. And yes, that means YOU and ME.
That's why I write so passionately about this subject matter. Like Obama, I too am a biracial Black man, with a Black father and White mother. I've prepared my whole life for this moment and have suffered enough variations on this theme of supremacy to see through the myriad cover-ups, excuses, "plausible deniablities," self-exonerations, and the presumed entitlement by Whites to treat Blacks as inferiors and/or fulfillers of their fantasies and followers of their dictates. And I know that now is the time to do the work and bring forth a new vision of how to be humans beings and understand and interact with each other - free of the legacy of White racial supremacy, superiority, and domination. One that catalyzes our highest potential as spiritual beings in human bodies to experience and express an unselfish and inclusive joy that is empathetic in not just words, but deeds. That goes the extra length to include and communicate before cutting off or excluding, and provides true opportunity for reparation and reconciliation before unilateral renunciation. That is what being ONE entails and what practicing "right relations" means.
In other words, it's time to bring about what I call "socio-spiritual liberation and joyful justice," not narcissistic "transcendence," gross materialism, and/or "sink or swim" conservative cruelty in "spiritual" or "self-empowerment" clothing. Like the old African proverb says, "I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am." And we aim to create a collective culture and consciousness, whose "right relations" are based on realness, equity, empathy, and substantive equality, i.e., "a more just and perfect Union," just as Obama and other historical leaders have always encouraged us to do. This Union is what I believe is meant by the idea that we are all One. To get there we've also got to see and confront the clones, devotees, and secret worshipers of Jefferson Davis and their secessionist beliefs and practices, that like the old Confederacy, are tearing asunder our Union.
That's why I'm calling out Murdoch and Fox (and other fundamentalists, including Limbaugh, etc.) so strongly. Because they actively tear apart the very fabric of our fragile Union. That's how they maintain and expand their power. They well know the subconscious waters we Americans all swim in and how vulnerable our psyches and implicit biases are to being triggered by the right racial imagery and stimuli. So they stir up the collective subconscious pot with the poisonous plot points in '24' and faux "news" broadcasts -- making sure that like the devil, secret revenge fantasies and lies can be used and called upon with "plausible deniability" whenever needed to rally the "conservative cause" and tear apart the union AND our collective consciousness.
Just like the young White Republican woman, Ashley Todd stirred it up with her fake accusation that a "big angry Black man" and Obama supporter terrorized her and carved a B in her face when he found out she was a McCain supporter. Fox ran with that fake story even when it knew it was a lie.
Mr. Murdoch, your Media Vampire Empire knows full well that the American psyche is primed to subconsciously believe such inflammatory stories and emotionally react to such imagery. That's why you emphasized your portrayal of Black men as terrorists specifically offending White women in the White House on '24.'
Oh, and of course you had great fun lampooning the War Crimes Act -- you know, that favorite liberal cause celebre to cede sovereignty of the country over to rogue nations, failed states, sponsors of terror, various and sundry "colored people" the world over, and their enablers over at the UN.
After all, you were one of the biggest supporters of your pal W's Iraq War. And you used your media empire to sell that War and the "War on Terror" the World over. I am assuming that was one of your crowning achievements in laying the foundation for the War Crimes to Come, which you seem now so intent on covering up. Your editorial writers over at the Walmart Journal, I mean Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and writers on '24' seem to drink from the same water fountain in your War on the War Crimes Act. Are you sure that the infamous Berkeley Law Professor and Bush torture memo writer, John Woo isn't moonlighting for you over at '24'?
In other words, your March 2nd and 9th episodes of '24' were a conservative's paranoid terrorist fantasy and racial wet dream come true -- in High Def if not pixilated living color.
Talk about a revenge fantasy. This was a revenge fantasy "in spades" (pardon the deliberate pun) -- Murdoch and Co. taking projected retroactive revenge out on Blacks, Browns, liberals, women, "traitor" Republicans and independents, etc. who would eventually elect our first real Black President, freeing us finally from the Bush/Cheney/Rove three-headed hydra Fox propped up all of these years. Like Ashley Todd and your Fox evening news broadcasts, you know your '24' "Black male terrorist" fantasy stirs up implicit racial fear, anxiety, and animosity towards Black men in particular. But it also helps spread subconscious fear and animus towards President Obama while cloaked in plausible deniability.
Lest we forget, the first two Presidents of the the 24 TV series were Black men. The first one was shot and under constant assassination threat and the second was responsible for allowing nuclear dirty bombs into the country causing mass destruction.
Don't you see the pattern here? The Plausible Deniability pattern seems to be your "ace of spades" to blind not just fans of the show, but those exposed to the rest of your media empire of sedition.
Don't worry Rupert the Ripper. We get it, and we get you. Just like we get Rush Limbaugh and the fact that he is the titular King of the Republican Party and Sarah Palin is his secessionist "NRA Chicks Gone Wild" pinup Queen, i.e., they have become the Scylla and Charybdis of the "conservative cause."
Y'all not only want President Obama to fail, but like Jefferson Davis before you, you also want the Union to fail.
Can somebody spell the words, "advertisers" and "boycott," and then can the congregation give me a resounding, amen?