{There are those who dare to call me a racist because I dare to pen truths about racism. These same fools ignore reality as they spin fantasies about me. I dedicate this column to all of my enemies. Your lies, offenses, slander, libel, trifling denial, delusion, and disrespect are all my greatest inspirations. I sincerely thank you all. Read on...}

Despite the permeation of neocon lies in media, race relations are not OK in America. Things will never be OK as long as we continue to evade the realities of racism in literally every arena. Academia may be less OK than ever before. Too few professors look like the students they increasingly teach. Campus attrition rates are skyrocketing.

James Baldwin wrote: “To be conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage”. I would like to qualify his eternal wisdom for the New Millennium: “To be conscious in an America that is decreasingly white is to be in a constant state of rage that is increasingly red hot!” Initially, the fires of my red hot rage were stoked by attacks on affirmative action. Racist whites realize that white supremacy, nepotism, and good old boy networks can no longer secure white power, due to their rapidly declining numbers. So they have reinforced affirmative discrimination by revamping redemptive institutional rules.

Later, my fury raged on when racist white women, who have benefited most from affirmative action, collectively decided that they preferred the alliances of white skin over those of gender. They decided it was better to secure white supremacy by reuniting their political forces with sexist white males. These racist feminists became traitors and fools, while true white feminists and black womanists resigned ourselves to the fact that racism is much stronger than sisterhood.

Most recently, our racist white enemies have constructed new barriers in academia. As more Blacks, Asians, and Latinos excel in academia than ever before, the rules of higher learning are changing, yet again. Those who demand that we "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps" continue to devise evil schemes to keep us barefoot. Those who blatantly lie about fictitious level playing fields, continue to brazenly make certain that those fields are more unlevel daily.

No one can deny that global economic divides exist. In America, most persons of all races do not own a computer. Most Blacks and Latinos are poor. Poor people are roadkill on the information superhighway. Impoverished schools do not even have enough books to distribute to each student. Thus, typing labs/classes and PC rooms are even more scarce or absolutely nonexistent.

Yet, ruthlessly, racist elitists in academia have decided to handicap students based upon their typing skills. They have methodically and quietly decided to make all standardized entrance exams manditorily computer based. So students who are superior typists will garner superior test scores. Those who have attended privileged schools with PC’s, whose parents can afford PC’s, or who have spent droves of hours in local libraries, will now have ruthless advantages over students who are less PC savvy.

Now culturally biased tests will be compounded by mechanical biases. The acquisition of PC and typing skills, far in advance of college testing and instruction, are great academic assets. They should not be exploited as pseudo intellectual advantages. College experiences should enhance these skills rather than penalize those who lack them upon entry into academic arenas. New students should be judged and admitted by their intellect, not their typing skills.

Republikkkan school voucher scams will cause urban schools to worsen. Rather than being just severely neglected, they will now be totally abandoned. School PC budgets will become tighter than ever.

This grossly unfair trend goes far beyond socio-economic bias. I have been blessed with educated professional parents and elite schools. I am a superior typist, and a gifted student. I recently earned a Master’s Degree in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication, Summa Cum Laude, with a 4.0 cumulative grade point average. Yet, my concentration is easily broken. A persistent cough, the nagging sound of a pen pressing loudly upon a nearby desk, conversations behind a closed door etc...all distract me immensely. I perform best in silence.

Nothing is louder than the cacophony of sounds coming from keyboards being pounded in unison during an exam. Such distractions are severely time consuming. They force me to backtrack etc...All standardized tests are rigidly timed. Those who can tune out loud noises better or type faster have a huge and unfair advantage on all computerized exams. Computerized testing should be optional, not mandatory.

I loathe this American trend in academe. It reminds me of a favorite song by Patrice Rushen. I have used it for years as the official theme song for my AM talk show “Outlook”. It is entitled “To Each His Own”. Its lyrics include: “If all men have the right to choose prosperity, I wonder why this choice is such a rarity?”.

Even as this new barrier is constructed as a weapon against those who are not proficient typists/PC operators, there are droves of campus officials who are blinded by racism/elitism/denial/delusion/apathy who will say: “Blacks just choose not to type/study/enter college/excel on standardized tests/compete/achieve....” If only these fools would choose to see beyond their fear of a Black planet, they would open the doors of academia completely and fairly. Anyone with the aptitude to walk through campus doors, irrespective of race or class or PC typing skills, would be allowed to take entrance exams. Now, the campus doors designed to selectively filter students are being made two-ply.

There is a renown and practical science to test taking. Often, clues to responses are imbedded within other questions. It is often necessary to return to previous questions to check or edit responses. Computerized testing makes this impossible or monitors it. Such strategic information should be private. Technical restrictions act as sabotage.

Unlike paper exams, computers are not foolproof. The anticipation of technical errors or delays increase anxiety. Increased anxiety further sabotages performance.

Statistics from those who are unable to type tests, or who forcibly type tests and garner lower scores, will not be used to reverse these new ruthless testing rules. There will be no comparative research done to secure paper tests as options. Instead, these statistics will be fiercely collected to support racist and bogus theories about genetic intellectual inferiority. Genetics will be scapegoated for the sabotage of environments.

I took my first formal typing class at 15. But, I began programming computers in prep school at the University of Illinois at age 12. So, for three years prior to my first typing class, I fashioned my own unorthodox style of typing. I struggled in that typing class. I retain that unique style to this day. My typing skills have often paid my rent. Yet, every column or paper that I have ever composed has been penned on paper first. I must do it that way. It is a comfortable ritual that has served me well for over 26 years.

As an undergraduate, I was blessed to attend a large international university where 24 hour computer labs and typing services were abundant. I was blessed to afford to have most of my papers professionally typed. As a superior student, I always completed my papers in advance. Later, after 15 years in corporate America, I attended graduate school. Fortunately, I owned my own PC. Still, every paper, and even my 118 page thesis, were penned on paper in advance.

Unlike racist elitists, I have empathy for those who have not shared my material or academic blessings. Unlike callous fools, I am not arrogant about my socio-economic ignorance. I respect variances in individuals’ experiences and needs. I embrace racial and economic diversity. I strive to understand and improve reality, not deny and distort it.

I was blessed with superior parents who taught me superior life lessons. The greatest of all was the lesson that reminds me to never allow my fortunes to make me blind or apathetic to the misfortunes of others. They taught me never to allow the trappings of their success to cause me to forget those who were trapped, by the hatred of racism, the weight of poverty, or the mentacide of white supremacy.

They taught me to live and represent the best of humanity, and my African-American race, while simultaneously embracing and fighting for those deemed as the least among us. That lesson has given me a unique strength, mission, and emotional anchor. It is that lesson that guards my sanity and saves my soul...

Generally, I have never really liked this world. That is why I will never give birth to another life to dwell here. A world so ugly and unfair deserves no fruit from my womb. Because my parents chose to give birth to me, I will do my best to make this world a better place before I exit, gladly and completely.

There are many successful Blacks who fail to endure these ongoing racist nightmares. One who touched me deeply, when I was an aspiring journalist at age 16, was journalist Leanita McClain. I admired everything about her. I shared her pain. My innocence died with her suicide. I shared her hopelessness. My determination was reborn with her death. I endure now because she did so then. She is my inspiration and salvation. [For more on Leanita see http://www.cjr.org/year/01/6/1989.asp]

Every time I see Black people dominate a sporting event, I wonder if we will ever be given a fair chance to do the same in intellectual and occupational arenas. Each time I see fans worship Dr. Dre, I wonder why more do not equally worship Dr. Ben Carson. I loathe Dr. Dre. I revere Dr. Carson. I wonder if Dr. Carson was a great typist when he began his illustrious medical career. If he were a teenager today, would his legendary surgical gifts be sabotaged by his lack of PC skills?

Author Ellis Cose, in Rage of a Privileged Class, explains how familiarity breeds wisdom and contempt. Author Otis Graham, in Member of the Club, explains how even wealth is often a weapon, but never a shield, against racism. Successful Blacks hate racist whites even more than those who never excel. It is precisely because we have never lived in a ghetto, have attended superior schools and universities, and have secured coveted white collar jobs that we experience such excruciating brands of racial pain and disgust, when we find that our black skin is still a barrier that even character and genius cannot erase.

We still endure racism daily within our ivory towers inside academe and beyond. We still train less educated and experienced whites to become our managers and chairs. We still witness less qualified white peers rapidly burst through glass ceilings that never even shatter for us. We play expertly by the rules and still we never win the games. We dwell upon those playing fields that racists dare to call level. And we know their treacherous and bumpy terrains as intimately as we know the taste of our own tears...

Slaves dreamt of freedom while captives, won by access and excellence. As their progeny, we find that we are still enslaved, irrespective of excellence, with access that is always tenuous at best. Our access is constantly blocked by newfangled obstacles and racist double standards of evaluation. We strive to live ancient and collective American dreams, only to find that we still cannot awaken from ancient and collective Amerikkkan nightmares. I live with a recurringly broken heart. It is broken daily.

My heart breaks every time any one refuses to see the validity of my anger...every time I see African people refusing to be as beautiful and loving as we all should be...every time white friends evade my Black reality...every time I stand alone on righteous ground...every time I hear any blind fool proclaim that racism is a relic...every time I see any televised awards show that looks like Apartheid...every time I see faceless, Black, naked, gyrating, female bodies on a music video...every time I grimace at Michael Jackson’s gruesome and ghastly bleached visage...every time I see another violent doomed child...every time I see Mumia in chains and O. J. free...every time I think of all the kids being raised like puppies, who will inherit this earth...every time I think of their subhuman “parents”...every time I see a grandmother raising her grandchildren, while her golden years slip away...every time I see a racist professor strive to break, rather than make, a Black student...My heart never heals.

It is only African ancestral angels and God who hold the bloody pieces of my perpetually broken heart together inside me. My entire life is an eternal gift from them. My eternal rebellion is my gift to them...

Not a single African-American was ever meant to survive slavery. Yet, millions of us have done so. Thus, each of us is a living miracle. Every wall that racists fashion is one that pain and time have specifically prepared all of us to climb.

African Labi Siffre is a poet, a gifted lyricist, and a sacred singer. He is also a kindred homosexual rebel spirit, with the voice of an Afrikan angel. When I am grieving over racist obstacles fashioned to destroy, I play a special song by Labi. It is entitled Something Inside So Strong:

“The higher you build your barriers
The taller I become
The farther you take my rights away
The faster I will run
You can deny me
You can decide to turn your face away
No matter, cause there’s

(CHORUS:)
Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Though you doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh No
There’s something inside so strong
Something inside so strong

The more you refuse to hear my voice
The louder I will sing
You hide behind walls of Jerico
Your lies will come tumbling
Deny my place in time
You squander wealth that’s mine
My light will shine so brightly it will blind you
Cause there’s

(CHORUS:)
Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Though you doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh No
There’s something inside so strong
Something inside so strong

Brothers and sisters
When they insist we’re just not good enough
Well, we know better
Just look them in the eyes and say
We’re gonna do it anyway
We’re gonna do it anyway
Because there’s

(CHORUS:)
Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Though you doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh No
There’s something inside so strong
Something inside so strong”

For more information on racist sabotage in academia read another column herein: “Losing the Race, Lost his Mind”. Also read:

Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
by Jonathan Kozol

Rage of a Privileged Class
by Ellis Cose

Member of the Club: Reflections on Life in a Racially Polarized World
by Lawrence Otis Graham

Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class
by Lawrence Otis Graham

Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Unequal
by Andrew Hacker

For more information on racism in academia and beyond, see these additional columns herein:

AMERIKKKA 2000: RACE-ING INTO THE MILLENNIUM

RACISM IN ACADEMIA: CALIFORNIA READING LISTS

EBONICS 1: BLACK ENGLISH-WHITE WEAPON

EBONICS 2: ON ARROGANT IGNORANCE

EBONICS 3: REVISIONIST RACISTS

THIS PAGE HOSTED BY GET YOUR OWN FREE HOME PAGE