MANSFIELD: Toms and Pimps

Toms and Pimps

Toms

The reason I keep going back to the Phillip Morris/Uncle Tom issue is made evident by one of his supporters who responded to my column last week. While the man wrote as if he were reasonably intelligent, his logic, in the end, made no sense.

He posited that Morris and other conservatives were right… if underclass parents just did their jobs in the proper manner all of their problems would be solved: Their progeny would get straight “A”s, go off to college and then go on to lead successful lives.

And the fact is, the conservatives are right, that “would” solve the problems… the Harlem Children’s Zone has already proven that it can work. The fault in his logic is the assumption these deficient parents know “how” to do their jobs and are just too damn lazy to do them. On this point conservatives are dead wrong.

Certainly there are some lazy parents of every class strata, and probably more of them in the underclass… but being a good, caring, loving, disciplinarian of a parent is a learned skill, and, unfortunately, parents of the underclass themselves were not properly taught… so how can we expect them to teach something they never learned? It’s generational, going all the way back to slavery… duhhh.

I know that all of this might be amazing to those — both black and white — who had the benefit of a stable, middleclass upbringing but, no matter if they believe it or not, it’s true. The sad thing is, these folks who constantly blame these parents for their deficiencies are so dense they can’t see beyond their own upbringing, their own privileged lives — or it may just be they simply don’t want to.

But the sinister part of this, of course, is… as long as society, fueled by the ugly rhetoric of Uncle Toms like Morris, continues to blame underclass parents for their failures (screaming at them that it’s their own damn fault for the circumstance they are in) there will be little in the way of real help provided to overcome their deficiencies. Few Harlem Children’s Zone programs will be funded. And that, folks, is why Toms are so dangerous… they impede minority progress, and that’s why I’m going to continue to call them out on it.

Political Big Pimpin‘

Last week statewide Democratic Party executive director Doug Kelly sent out an email blast playing on the fact of Kasich’s racial omission in his cabinet selections (at the time there still were no minorities) in an attempt to raise funds. He wanted folks to donate because minorities were being dissed.

But where were the statewide white Democratic Party leaders and elected officials when the dissing was going on? Other than one or two of them — who paid weak lip-service to diversity and inclusion — they were nowhere to be found. Yet, they had no problem using the issue of Kasich’s alleged racism to do some political soliciting. There’s a term for that: It’s called “pimpin’ the issue.”

Every election cycle Dems descend on black communities around the state and throw a little money around like so much chum or chicken feed… but pay scant attention to minorities any other time. Then, when a democratic governor fails to win reelection, whose fault is it? Why those lazy, shiftless minority voters who don’t turn out in large enough numbers, of course. Go figure.

At least with Kasich we persons of color know exactly where we stand, with the Ohio Democratic Party I’m not so sure.

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.