No Googlers, Yahoos, or anyone Else

This is in response to the article Are There No Black Googlers?.

No there aren’t- or at least very, very few. There are hardly any african-americans working in companies like Google, let alone leading or controlling them. This is an industry that represents the absolute cutting edge of american capitalism and the main engine of it’s continued growth. That’s why I made the decision 15 years ago to focus my entrepreneurial efforts on the tech industry. I had previously dabbled in game programming while in junior high, but by the time I reached college computers were little more than glorified typewriters to me. I did not get into this business by accident.

This absence of participation in the high-tech industry is more than simply unfortunate, it will represent the basis of a future filled with less opportunity for self-determination and freedom for african-americans and more subservience and dependence. It will be the cause of the continuance of an age old american tradition where new immigrants, in this case indians and east asians, rapidly surpass and end up in a socially superior position to african-americans whose ancestry in this country stretches far beyond that of even most of our ethnically european peers.

For me, this is an outcome that is simply unacceptable.

No Thanks, Mr. Buchanan

This post is a response to the essay “A Brief for Whitey” by patrick buchanan.

In his essay, mr. buchanan expresses a fairly common american perspective, if not so often directly expressed view, that white* citizens are owed a debt of gratitude by black* citizens. This is absurd on its face. If one group of people enslaves and subjugates the other, and the enslaved respond by struggling for their freedom by every means available up to and including violent rebellion, and to which the conquerors respond at every turn with equal and greater attempts at maintaining their superior position, and this dialectic eventually resolves in more freedom for the once enslaved, do the once enslaved owe the conquerors gratitude?

No mr. buchanan. I do not owe you any respect, let alone gratitude. The only thing you are owed, if you choose to reject Mr. Obama’s lesson on reconciliation, is a lesson on the art of war. It will certainly be one or the other.

*I use terms like “black” and “white” for the reader’s convenience, but personally reject the nomenclature of racial hierarchy.

On Obama and Americanism

This is part of a recent email discussion I had with my good friend MJ between March 17 and March 19, 2008.

FB wrote:
i never disagreed that the blackballing propaganda campaign would be used against obama, only on whether or not it would work. i did think it wouldn’t happen unless he became the nominee, but at any rate here we are. i’m going to watch his speech tomorrow.

this whole thing with obama has prompted a lot of discussion between ernie (my biological father- i’m staying at his house right now) and i. i don’t generally watch tv and he always watches the main stream media shows like hardball (chris matthews is a fellow philadelphian), olbermann, and even the fox network. i’ve been watching these shows with him over the past few days and it has given us an opportunity to view how these things are playing out on the net vs. the tv, and to discuss our opinions in general. during our discussion yesterday i stated that i don’t feel like i have a coherent ideology, but after thinking about it i realize that’s not true. i think both you and i share a basic ideology that we’ve been operating under for 15 years in my case, and even longer in your case. you and i have been discussing these things amongst ourselves and perhaps close family and friends for at least as long, but as i said before, i think it’s time we start communicating these ideas to others.

as part of that effort i’m doing to do my best to begin codifying these thoughts so we can organize them for eventual dissemination. i’ve written a very basic mission statement for your review. please comment as you see fit.

Our mission is to create and institutionalize an economically self-sufficient class of African-Americans and descendants under the general structures of western capitalism, and to do so via entrepreneurial business ownership.

MJ wrote:Let me know if you agree with my translation of the mission statement in layman terms. “We are Americans”.

FB wrote:
i don’t agree with your translation, because while acknowledging our american roots, i would say our mission transcends that. if we have to establish the class of african-american descendants in norway that’s what we’ll do. right? at least for me the mission is not dependent on whether or not we continue to claim or in fact reject our american citizenship. think about how jews have migrated all over the world, wherever happened to be more hospitable, but always carried with them the traditions and behaviors of economic self-sufficiency. chinese and lebanese people have migrated around the world and done much the same thing. i believe allegiance to any particular government *has* to be subservient to the necessities of self-preservation and freedom.

plus, as a mission statement we have to be very clear about the actual mission. it’s not a statement of identity, which we can work on later, but of purpose. most americans do not belong to the entrepreneurial class, so just stating we are americans- even if i actually subscribed to that- would not be enough. what i’m getting it as that i think you and i believe that the entrepreneurship and capitalism (as opposed to communism or some other economic system) are absolutely strategic necessities for said self-preservation and freedom. that’s why i became an entrepreneur in the first place, rather than a lawyer or an accountant, or a poet, or a welder, etc. it was my understanding that you shared the same original motivation and conviction.

MJ wrote: Basically that is my point, while we are in America, we want/need to establish a way to become complete Americans including the American Dream. What you described in the Mission Statement was what other groups including Europeans would consider accomplishing the American Dream. In Norway, it would be the Norwegian Dream, based on whatever their structure of capitalism or economically success would be. Basically I think it is the same old story, how do we get a seat at the table, and once we get there what do we do with it. Right now, we don’t have a seat, we have a stool which we can slide off of in multiple directions at any given point. Basically the American government is an asset to us, NOT to be part of it, but because of it’s structure we can create an “American” class of successful people of ANY racial decent, including African American Descendants. Of course it is just a matter what method is used, to achieve the goal.

FB wrote: good points, but i think it remains to be seen whether or not we can actually create an “american” class of self-sufficient people using the methods we’ve chosen thus far. as i’m sure it is painful for us to both remind ourselves, we haven’t actually accomplished the truly successful business ownership part yet. i think it is still it is an open question as to whether we can pull it off, and i for one will never take the option off the table that perhaps the self-sufficiency we seek is best pursued elsewhere. i don’t think that’s the case right now, but i definitely think it *might* become the case, depending on how things evolve. my point with bringing up other groups of successful migrants is that we would actually be part of a very long human tradition if we did so.

as we have both asserted many times, we are americans, and unequivocally so. however, the desire for self-preservation and freedom are not particularly american, they are simply human. many people from around the globe, including europeans, have come here to pursue a path to this freedom via opportunities most easily achieved in america at that time. but those very same paths were denied to us at that very same time, even though we’re [some of] the truest americans there can possibly be. so it follows that “american-ness” in any form must be subservient to freedom and self-preservation, and not the other way around. i would consider that a fundamental principle.

how, specifically, would you edit the mission statement? let’s work through it.

MJ wrote:Actually the “We are Americans” was an attempt to be sarcastic, because it is a shame we have to go through so much to become what the Constitution already is supposed to give us, the ability to be “Americans”. We both know even though I accept the American premise, it is really because of the Blood, Sweat and Tears my family along with others suffered for. Of course, in my opinion OTHER American usually European Americans do not accept me an Equal American, which is the ONLY kind of American the Constitution provides for! Of course my sense of humor is not always very clear, so that is why I usually refer to it as sarcastic humor.

FB wrote: ah. yes, it is unfortunate, but that’s why we need people like us to step us [sic] 😉 i usually pick up on your sarcasm right away, but it is sometimes a bit harder by email. i’d suggest the strategic use of emoticons 😉 i’m kind of glad i misunderstood you because it gave me a chance to write down some of the thoughts bouncing around in my head with no place to go. and the mission statement will stand as is… for now.

Apologies and Continuations

Current Book: The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson

I must apologize to all of you who took the time to sign up for the original Ma Famille blog comunity on live journal. Actually, two apologies are in order. First, I must apologize for not actually posting anything after my initial confessional nearly one year ago. Secondly, I have to apologize for the clunkiness and general difficulty in using the LJ site for all of us. As you see, I have decided to move the blog to wordpress, which is a bit more user friendly.

Over these path few months I have certainly intended to post my thoughts, but have fallen into the obsessive secrecy that has too often been my normal modus operandi. I was actually well into writing my promised follow-up to my confessional while I was residing in Japan last fall, but that was interrupted by a violent and beautiful introduction to Nietzsche. Besides, the truth of the matter is that I could not follow-up the confessional because it was written when I was still in an abnormal state of mind. Not that I’m retracting anything I wrote, but rather than try to expound on how I was thinking then I’ve found I can only concentrate on what I’m thinking now.

Rather than try to write grand essays, I’m going to make a determined effort to make this more like a free-form journal where I don’t necessarily try to organize everything and simply post what I’m thinking about on a regular basis. Writing is a slow and laborious process for me, and even more so when I’m primarily focused on writing code for Musedot and the rest of my thoughts are a passionate scramble. What I know for certain is that it is time for me to make every effort to communicate with you. I’ve come to the fairly recent realization that all my heroes were great communicators- prolific writers. If I wish to emulate them in even the slightest fashion I have to do the same.

It may be presumptous of me to believe you do or should care about my private thoughts. However, I believe that what you read here will challenge you as it has challenged me, and not only to pondering but to action. I have an agenda, and have been operating under the goals of this agenda for over 15 years now. In this journal I will begin the process of elaborating and illuminating this agenda. This agenda has as one of it’s main goals the empowerment of musicians and artists through social data mining technology (Musedot). The goal is to develop Musedot into a highly successful family business. That family being the confessional variety, and not limited to those with a direct genetic relationship to me. Hopefully, the success of Musedot will enable the implementation of the second phase of the agenda, which will be further explained here.

I’ll keep you posted.