Op-Ed

An Answer for Confederate Apologists

Published

9 years ago

July 27, 2015

By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist

Someone identifying himself as Jimmy Oliver sent me an email objecting to a column I wrote under the headline, “Confederate Traitors Don’t Deserve to be Honored.” I presume he wrote to get a reply, so here it is, with Oliver’s words in italics.

I do not appreciate you calling my ancestors traitors, Benedict Arnold or traitors.

Well, I do not appreciate your ancestors enslaving my ancestors. I do not appreciate your White ancestors thinking they were superior to my ancestors solely because God created us a different color. I do not appreciate your ancestors forcing my ancestors to work long hours for free. I do not appreciate your ancestors treating mine like property, buying and selling them at will. I do not appreciate your ancestors breaking up African families whenever they wanted to and I do not appreciate your male ancestors raping my powerless female ancestors.

And, yes, your ancestors were traitors. In fact, their photographs should be placed next to the word “traitor” in the dictionary. The definition of traitor is clearly spelled out in Article 3, Section 3 of U.S. Constitution: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”

In case you missed it, the Confederacy leveled war against the United States from 1861-1865.

The Civil War was fought, not because of slavery, but for southern states rights.

Yes, it was fought because southern states wanted “states rights” – the right to maintain slavery.

Slavery was not the most compelling issue of the Civil War.

That’s pure nonsense. The states’ orders of secession prove otherwise. For example, “A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union” began: “In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.”

Virginia cited, “the oppression of the Southern Slaveholding States.” And South Carolina, the first state to leave the Union, asserted, “…The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor.”

The Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Stephens is one man’s opinion.

Stephens was not merely one man – he was vice president of the Confederate States of America. In the speech, he was very clear when he said, “the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery – subordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition.”

Other Confederate leaders expressed similar sentiments. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States, said, “My own convictions as to negro slavery are strong. It has its evils and abuses…We recognize the negro as God and God’s Book and God’s Laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him – our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude…You cannot transform the negro into anything one-tenth as useful or as good as what slavery enables them to be.”

You say remove the monuments and tributes of the Civil War to whom my ancestors served and I consider to be a part of my Southern Heritage.

Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying. Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley’s decision to remove four Confederate flags from the Capitol grounds in Montgomery and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recommendation that a statue of Kentucky-born Jefferson Davis be removed from the state Capitol are steps in the right correction. As the headline on my initial column stated, “Confederate Traitors Don’t Deserve to be Honored.”

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA) and BlackPressUSA.com. He is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. Curry can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com. You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge and George E. Curry Fan Page on Facebook. See previous columns at http://www.georgecurry.com/columns.

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COMMENTARY: President Biden, The Constitution and Race

The Democratic Party needs to pause and reflect on the real issue, which is race and not an aging President. Once again, we see the Kool-Aid of division being swallowed, not by the MAGA Right, but by Democrats who know better and openly profess a love for democracy and the Constitution of the United States. So, the question is how can one love the Constitution and at the same time only obey those sections that agree with our way of thinking?

Published

1 week ago

July 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. John E. Warren contends that it is the race of Biden’s successor, Kamal Harris, that is the real issue underneath the fearmongering about the president’s age. Courtesy photo.

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

The Democratic Party needs to pause and reflect on the real issue, which is race and not an aging President.

Once again, we see the Kool-Aid of division being swallowed, not by the MAGA Right, but by Democrats who know better and openly profess a love for democracy and the Constitution of the United States. So, the question is how can one love the Constitution and at the same time only obey those sections that agree with our way of thinking?

When President Biden wins re-election, his age or any other issue will only become a problem when there are signs he is unable to fulfill the duties of the Office. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution handles the succession process setting out how the Vice President assumes the Office of the Presidency and how the Office of the Vice Presidency is to be filled. The elephant in the room is Vice President Kamala Harris, who happens to not only be a woman, but also Black.

This is the same Black woman who was Attorney General of the largest state in the Union. She was an elected U.S. Senator from that same state which had given us the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren and President Ronald Reagan.

She has been elected by the Democratic Party’s primary process which made Joe Biden the presidential candidate, and Harris the vice-presidential candidate.

So, is the real issue the age of a man who, in the last four years, rescued this nation from the brink of destruction?

Is it the Democrats opposing the President staying in the race who may have Alzheimer’s and memory loss, rather than the President who remembers what he has done and how he rescued a struggling nation?

Is it the Democrats complaining about the President and know that Trump has a better chance at winning against a last-minute replacement than running against a President who has already beaten him before? In knowing all these facts, especially the presence of the 25th Amendment, the only card left in the deck is race.

It appears that some White Liberal Democrats just don’t want a Black woman in the orbit of really becoming President and they would rather disgrace and destroy a good man because of a bad debate than take a chance on a Black woman running the White House.

Let’s not get it twisted. It was a Black Congressman from South Carolina, James Clyburn, who motivated Black America to vote for Joe Biden when it appeared that he was out of the race for the presidency.

It is the Black Vote that put him in office and it is the Black Vote of the Congressional Black Caucus who, in this race for the White House, is standing in unity with the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives in a Republican-controlled Congress against whimpering calls from a few democrats for the President to “step aside.”

Once again, the clarion call is to stand with the Constitution and not be like the Supreme Court who is now stomping upon all that it stands for in an effort to protect and insulate the convicted felon that we, the people, would keep out of the White House.

A move to oust President Biden would surely guarantee an election victory for Trump.

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Opinion: A Strange Tale of Two Political Fights: Sheng Thao and Donald Trump

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao must be wondering how can a convicted felon with 34 guilty verdicts be riding high, while she, an uncharged elected official, fights for her political life? That’s how strange politics is in America today.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 12, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Presidential Candidate Donald Trump.

By Emil Guillermo

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao must be wondering how can a convicted felon with 34 guilty verdicts be riding high, while she, an uncharged elected official, fights for her political life?

That’s how strange politics is in America today.

On the national stage, President Joe Biden made an historic ask of Americans this week. It’s summer, and everyone is a “low information” voter now. But for the sake of the country, and the future of democracy, it’s time to pay attention. Get nerdy now.

Biden is essentially tied with Trump, a newly convicted felon, which tells you how cockeyed political values are in America.

Instead of policy, Trump is all bluster talking about a pre-debate drug test because he’s sure Biden is going to be “jacked up” on some kind of performance enhancing drug.

That kind of thing gets attention. Not whether you’re going to things to improve people’s lives.

But rest assured, if Donald Trump is elected for a second time, the blueprint is already out. The Heritage Foundation’s plan calls for a “Department of Life,” and a theocratic-based world view where abortion is illegal, and minorities of all stripes are disempowered.

A vote for Trump represents a radical reformatting of democracy.

POLITICS IN OAKLAND

In the meantime, local Oakland politics is slightly different, but no less confounding.

Sheng Thao, 18 months into her tenure as the first Hmong American to be mayor of a major U.S. city, is recovering from the worst week in her life.

First, a group of Oakland citizens qualified enough signatures to hold a recall election of Thao. Then, on Wednesday, 15 people were shot at an unauthorized Juneteenth celebration in the city’s Lake Merritt area. The topper came Thursday, when the FBI executed a pre-dawn raid of a number of houses including Thao’s, all connected to a case reportedly involving improper campaign donations from Andy Duong, a Vietnamese American businessman whose company, CalWaste, won the contract to run the city’s recycling program. No arrests were made, just boxes and computers hauled from the various homes. Not a good look.

THAO: “I AM INNOCENT”

For five days, Thao was silent, but on Monday, she came out firing her best shot.

“I have done nothing wrong,” Thao said at a news conference. “I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me. I have not been charged with a crime and I am confident that I will not be charged because I am innocent.”

Thao said she was seeking answers from the U.S. attorney as to why she wasn’t “offered the opportunity to cooperate voluntarily.”

Good question. Unless they thought she was hiding something.

Thao addressed the shootings last week first with care, then said she won’t be distracted from the real issues of Oakland. Like safety or the selling of the Oakland Coliseum to a Black-owned group.

But she went back to questioning the timing of last week.

“I want to know more about the handful of billionaires from San Francisco and Piedmont who are hell bent on running me out of office,” she said, questioning how the recall announcement and the raid seemed orchestrated with the media “to fan the flames and bend the facts to shape a narrative.”

Trump, the convicted felon, overcomes reality and is propelled by “friends” who see him as a winner. Thao was voted in through RCV, rank-choice-voting. She was the most people’s No. 2, not No. 1.

Maybe that’s why few allies are standing up behind her now. The Oakland NAACP, and even one Asian group is calling for her to resign.

For Thao, this will be the test if her story can overcome it all, again.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him at www.amok.com

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Opinion: What about Joe? Follow Kamala’s Lead

Big Dem donors and media are keeping alive a troubling narrative about last week’s debate: that Joe Biden isn’t fit to be president and should step aside. Biden may have had a lousy debate night, but for our democracy and for all people of color, he’s still the best possible choice.

Published

3 weeks ago

July 8, 2024

Oakland Post

Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris

By Emil Guillermo

Big Dem donors and media are keeping alive a troubling narrative about last week’s debate: that Joe Biden isn’t fit to be president and should step aside.

Biden may have had a lousy debate night, but for our democracy and for all people of color, he’s still the best possible choice.

But now newspaper editorial boards, like the New York Times, have warned: For Dems to win, Joe must go.

What do they know? They aren’t doctors.

More irksome is that few are willing to say what should be obvious. If you replace Biden this late in the game, there should be no other person but his No. 2.

Oakland’s Kamala Harris.

They will mention Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom while too often overlooking Harris who was the best thing going for the Biden-Harris ticket on debate night.

When Biden was down, Harris had his back.

“What we saw tonight is the President making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people,” Harris said on CNN. “Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong.”

Harris also looked strong. She was filled with an appealing youthful political vigor.

It was everything Joe Biden wasn’t on debate night.

She acknowledged the rough parts, which included a moment where Biden seemed to lose his thoughts. Was he talking about Covid? Medicare?

Still compare that one senior moment with Trump, who showed off his strength as a functioning pathological liar.

No. 45 sounded louder with a clearer voice than No.46, but that doesn’t mean with all his lies and 34 guilty verdicts he deserves to be No. 47.

Undaunted, Biden said last Friday in North Carolina, he intends to stay in the race, pointing out he knows how to do the job and that unlike Trump, he knows how to tell the truth.

But the media continues to question whether Biden can do the job. A CBS poll found that only 27% of voters believe he has the mental health to be president.

If more negative polling data comes in, Biden may be forced to decide whether this is the time to bow out and retire from public life.

I’m keeping my eyes on Harris. Think Biden must go? Remember, Harris is on the ticket that’s raised millions of dollars to fight Trump.

With reproductive rights of women one of the strongest issues the Democrats have, leaning in on the first female African American/Asian American vice president, may be the Democrats’ best, if not only, answer.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He’s covered politics from Hawaii, California, to Washington, DC when he hosted NPR’s “All Things Considered.” See him on www.amok.com