Should African Americans Wave The Flag? By Donna J. Warren

Black folks riding around with American flags waving from cars. Black folks thinking maybe racial profiling isn’t so bad as long as they’re profiling those evil terrorists, the Arabs and the Muslims.

Is it really OK for Black folks to ride around with American flags?

Is racial profiling now OK when directed to the Arab and Muslim Communities?

Recent polls in the Black community show that 60% of African Americans are in favor of racial profiling of the Arab/Muslim community in light of the 911 World Trade bombings. Is racial profiling, a product of insidious American racism, ever justified?

Timothy McVeigh--male, white, American, veteran, Michigan militia member, blew up the Oklahoma federal building. America did not racially profile white Americans.

America did not advocate blowing up the State of Michigan.

The Taliban wants evidence of Osama bin Laden’s guilt before they turn bin Laden over to a court.

No negotiations says Bush. ‘When I said no negotiations, I meant no negotiations. We know he's guilty; turn him over.’

Don’t need evidence to find bin Laden guilty. Nothing new to South Central LA. Most of the 56,775 inmates in California’s prisons under the 3 Strikes Law were convicted with little or no evidence, often on the word of a police officer, or worse still, sentenced to 25 years to life because 5, 10, 15 years or more ago the evidence was a bargained plea. 57% of these prisoners are African American; this in a state that may be 12% African American. California Courts don’t need evidence to convict.

Simi Valley, 1992, lots of evidence showed 5 white policemen brutally beating and inflicting permanent damage on a Black motorist. The evidence was superfluous because a jury thought Stacey Koon and company were acting in the best interests of the people. Not guilty on all counts. Don’t need evidence to convict white police who beat and murder Blacks, need a miracle!

The Bill of Rights, that little document which is supposed to govern how we do business in the United States of America, says a person is innocent until proven guilty, and that the accused can face his accuser in a court of law and that the defendant is entitled to a trial by jury - a jury of his peers.

"Turn him over, turn his cohorts over, turn any hostage they hold over, destroy all the terrorist camps. ... I told them exactly what they needed to do. There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty. Turn him over," said the president selected by the Supreme Court. "They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

Maybe that’s why African Americans wave the flag. Osama bin Laden and all those terrorist Arabs and Muslims hate our freedoms.

In 1996, Madeleine Albright, then the US secretary of state, was asked on national television what she felt about the 500,000 Iraqi children who had died as a result of US economic sanctions. It was a ‘very hard choice,’ but Albright said, ‘all things considered, we think the price is worth it.’

George Bush the First, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger, General Colin Powell, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Ronald Reagan, Elliot Abrams, Gerald Ford, and George Bush the Second have supported, trained, bankrolled and supplied with arms the murders of millions in Yugoslavia, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda, Pakistan, Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, the Congo, South Africa, My Lai, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Vietnam, East Timor, Angola, Cambodia, Guatemala, Grenada, Libya, Palestine, Afghanistan, and South Central Los Angeles. U.S. terrorism continues to strike in the States - infestation of crack cocaine by the CIA, mandatory minimum sentencing, 3 Strikes, the Prison Industrial Complex, the racist death penalty, institutionalized racism in education, health care, social services, housing, employment.

Let’s wave our flags for America and stand united with President Bush in pure presumptuous arrogance because "If you're not with us, you're against us".

I am an American but until America stops her aggression on my World, until America humbles herself at the table for peace, and until America apologizes for slavery, my African American brothers and sisters will just have to wave that American flag without me.

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem." Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit"

Donna J. Warren is a South Central LA Community Activist and Candidate for
the Green Party Nomination for Lt. Governor of California. She ran in June
2001 as the Green Party Candidate to fill the seat vacated by the death of
Julian Dixon in the 32nd Congressional District.