Wake Up, Black Asheville
By Willie Cameron, Jr.
I have been defending black people in this country every chance I got since I was 13 years old.
For some reason I really can’t explain, I have always been compelled to do so. Growing up during “Jim Crow” days surely educated me as to the inequality of being born black in America.
On the other hand, I was one of the first in this community to benefit from placement into the great educational facilities afforded to the majority population since the days of the Founding Fathers.
Being a graduate of the HBCU, Johnson C. Smith University, I was taught to use my gifts to further the advancement of our people. It was said that, “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.” For the past forty years being an advocate for black people was fairly easy, but today, 2014, that is not the case.
For centuries, blacks have been portrayed as less than human, animal-like in demeanor and just plain out of place in polite society. Black men in particular are seen as the dregs of humanity, and as such must be “CONTROLLED” at all costs. Didn’t matter what great contributions that they made to the quality of life in America, like peanut butter or heart surgery, or the heroic actions they have taken over the years like being the first to die for the cause of freedom, or manning a gun on a ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor, black men always come out on the bottom of the social ladder.
Consider for a moment President Barrack H. Obama. Since 2009 this man has done all he could to allow the “Ship of State” to keep on sailing, but because of his ancestry, he has been belittled for whatever he has done. Has he made mistakes? Yes. He is a human being and as such mistakes are inevitable, but if he belonged to the majority ethnic grouping he would be a superstar. After all, he was at the helm when “9/11” was revenged.
Obama, as the enemy calls him, is also under attack by influential members of his own race. He is on record as supporting gay marriage. Black Christians are led to believe him morally wrong in this matter. According to the Christian faith he IS WRONG! According to the United States Constitution, which by the way, he twice pledged to defend, right hand on the Bible, he IS RIGHT!
There are two sides to every coin and also to every story. Obama is not a religious leader of any faith — Christian, Muslim, Shinto, atheist, or what-have-you. He is the administrative and military leader of all America.
In the eight years prior to Mr. Obama, I can’t remember religious leaders speaking badly against Mr. George W. Bush, although he was not so morally correct, either. History says Mr. Bush lied in order to involve this country in war, a war where people’s children died or were maimed both physically and mentally. “Never heard a mumbling word.”
Let your fingers do the punching, rolling, etc. across your “SMART DIVICE” till it comes to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Stop when you get to THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE. This clause which took effect in 1868 provides that no state shall deny a person within its jurisdiction “THE EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS.” In other words, whatever the law allows a white male to do “ALL” other citizens have that same right.
This clause was the basis for the legal argument against the doctrine of “Separate but Equal” or segregation. Brown v. Board of Education was won because of this clause. This same constitutional doctrine is being used by today’s gay community. Mr. Obama is not to blame for same-sex marriage. He is doing the exact same thing that President Dwight David Eisenhower did in the 1950s when black students trying to enter an all-white school in Arkansas needed protection from local people.
Mr. Eisenhower was no liberal. He was for the status quo. However, despite his personal feelings he did his job as president and sent Federal troops to protect the black students. Ike surely caught the devil from his people at the time, but thank God he did his job.
Mr. Obama has a female wife. He has two children. Despite his personal feelings he is doing his job. Seems to me that politicians who claim they are against gay rights are using this issue to divide and conquer.
