Dear Herman Cain,
I write this letter with all due respect and with the utmost concern about your recent comments on African Americans in these United States.
You have expressed your beliefs that “people sometimes hold themselves back because they want to use racism as an excuse not being able to achieve what they want to achieve” – that blacks have been “brainwashed” and that “racism hasn’t held anyone back in this country in a big way”.
The First Amendment says you are entitled to your free speech.
However, as an African American man and citizen of these United States (we may have to do the ol’ birth certificate review…you know the drill), you must understand your statements are a slap in the face to anyone in the struggle for equality.
Not only this; it is an affront to the African Americans who sacrificed their lives on your behalf.
You have an inspiring success story, and there are many in this country, as you have stated on several occasions.
But when those who have had the fortune of being successful take the liberty to bash the less fortunate – when those who have achieved begin to label others as non achievers, lazy or less than based on their race, class or social status – when those with a platform assault their own people from that platform – it is extremely dangerous and problematic beyond your comprehension.
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I do not believe that you, as an educated man vying for the presidency, are unaware of the unfair housing practices, racially discriminatory hiring practices, racially segregated schooling, predatory lending, the disproportional incarceration rate of minorities and the many other issues plaguing American society – right now.
You have made light of racism in the worst way, by claiming those who have been shut out, disenfranchised and discriminated against are somehow responsible for the actions of bigots.
You have not only discounted your own history and the very real problems minorities still face, you have negated the pursuit of equality made daily by people of all races and ethnicities.
This country was not built on equality, nor was it built on freedom. People died for our freedom, your people included.
Your people have suffered – were lynched, hosed by police and attacked by dogs on their way to work and school. Your people were denied the opportunity to vote or own property.
Your people were the property. Your people’s personal records were systematically destroyed so they would be forever lost with no family to speak of, no identification and no record of live birth.
Your people were once considered three-fifths of a person in the eyes of the Government, filtered into ghettos and victimized all over again via government orchestrated genocide in the form of guns and crack cocaine.
Your people battle every day for proper representation in a society still afflicted by the powerful structure of racism. How dare you.
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Those you have chosen to bestow your loyalty upon and speak on behalf of are the wrong people.
You speak on behalf of those who seek to cut funding in the poorest communities, to further persecute the downtrodden and to profit from the corporate greed that has left so many at a staggering disadvantage.
There is not and has never been a level playing field in this country, but the game goes on and we continue to fight armed with the knowledge of our history.
To suggest that African Americans are somehow inferior or have no want to achieve is not only offensive and rooted in bigotry – it is untrue.
You do not get a pass because you are a black man, and furthermore you are not pardoned to assault blacks in this way. The people you insult are the majority.
Remember, four hundred people in this country control more wealth than 150 million others. When you openly insult those who are so bravely protesting wall street greed – calling them “jealous” individuals who want to “steal the Cadillac” of the achievers (your words) – you alienate the voters you seek.
Maybe you’re just playing politics – but is it worth it? You are not a part of the dominant ruling class (fact), and because you will eventually have to go back to your neighborhood and integrate back into society with the common folk once the 2012 election is over, you should be more careful with your criticisms (if you wonder how I arrived at the conclusion that you will not take the Presidency, refer again to the latter portion of this paragraph and tend to the bullet in your foot).
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To shun the poor denies the calculated structure that is capitalism.
To point the finger of blame at any race for their own oppression is to support and condone the very serious crimes of humanity committed against them.
To say that African Americans make excuses and harbor some lack of desire for achievement is to support the ideology that is at the foundation of white supremacy.
To attempt to convince the country that your own people are inferior is inexcusable. I discount your opinions at this stage, but I urge you to show some class, pride and respect when you speak of my people.
Though you have in fact been brainwashed into believing that blacks have been “brainwashed,” I write this to you as the descendant of slaves, as the child of an immigrant, as an honor graduate, as an American success story and as a proud black woman.
I am proud of my people for who they are and for what they have become. I honor their human spirit in the face of unthinkable adversity.
I am forever in the debt of those who built this country on their backs through the institution of slave labor, while reaping no benefit.
I am the living legacy of my ancestors and a product of their incredible sacrifice. Because you are seemingly unconscious of where we’ve been, you have made the mistake to underestimate where we’re going.
We are inventors, scientists, politicians, architects, publishers, historians, directors, media makers, world leaders, Supreme Court Justices, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, community activists, philanthropists, educators, war veterans, doctors, lawyers, barrier breakers, innovators — We are the 44th President of these United States.
While you do your best to convince others that you don’t, it is so obvious you want to be like us. I wish you the best of luck as you attempt to prove yourself worthy.
“There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up…. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber…. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, 1958
