In light of President Barack Obama’s emotional speech about the need for gun control in the U.S., the dominant society has displayed much (real or fake) outrage out of fear that they will be losing their firearms, but to Black society, we have seen this scenario enacted upon us time and time again.

The earliest accounts of the disarmament of Melanoid people in this country took place around when the Virginia Slave Code of 1680. The law stated that “It shall not be lawfull [sic] for any negroe [sic] or other slave to carry or arme [sic] himselfe [sic] with any club, staffe [sic], gunn [sic], sword or any other weapon of defence [sic] or offence [sic]”. Twenty-five years later, the code was revised in a more modernized form, stating the following: “no slave go armed with gun, sword, club, staff, or other weapon.”

Gun control laws on Black people became more stringent following the heralded Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831. In the eyes of the white supremacists during the 1800’s, they were hellbent on ensuring that another Nat Turner or Haitian Revolution would never happen again. There is an article published in 1993 by Clayton E. Cramer titled The Racist Roots of Gun Control. The article highlights a plethora of laws and bylaws mandated by the U.S. to keep guns out of the collective hands of Black people.

In 2011, Adam Winkler spoke about his book “Gun Fight,” and the origins of gun control, saying, according to The Wall Street Journal:

“The KKK began as a gun-control organization. Before the Civil War, blacks were never allowed to own guns. During the Civil War, blacks kept guns for the first time — either they served in the Union army and they were allowed to keep their guns, or they buy guns on the open market where for the first time there’s hundreds of thousands of guns flooding the marketplace after the war ends. So they arm up because they know who they’re dealing with in the South. White racists do things like pass laws to disarm them, but that’s not really going to work. So they form these racist posses all over the South to go out at night in large groups to terrorize blacks and take those guns away. If blacks were disarmed, they couldn’t fight back.”

Perhaps the most pivotal moment in recent history occurred in 1967 when the Black Panther Party walked into California’s state capital building carrying firearms after being well-read on their constitutional rights to do so. Frightened by the sight of the Panthers openly carrying their firearms and the thought of other Black revolutionary groups (and ordinary Black citizens alike), California governor at the time Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford Act into law. This new law prohibited citizens from publicly carrying loaded firearms, and ironically it had the full support of the NRA.

The NRA has a history of being against any laws that would place restrictions on gun ownership and the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. But they had no problem flip-flopping on their position when it came to a significant number of Black people exercising those same rights.

The concerted efforts of white supremacists to keep firearms out of the hands of Black people exposes an interesting comparison to the Late Dr. Frances Cress Welsing’s studies which highlighted the dominant society’s fear of genetic annihilation due to Black procreation–namely via the Black male genitalia–which on many levels would explain the panic (and inferiority complex) shared by white supremacists for hundreds of years.

By Saturday, July 4th, 2015, this country will have already witnessed one of its most volatile and disheartening years in recent history…and we’re slightly over halfway through 2015 at this point. At the time of this writing, the United States has witnessed literally hundreds of murders of innocent and unarmed Melanoid people at the hands of race soldiers (aka police officers), mass killings of innocent and unarmed Melanoid people in places of worship at the hands of white extremists who were inspired to do so in the name of racism/white supremacy, the burning down of several Black churches in various areas of the United States, and the worst part of the matter is that ALL of this occurred in 2015 alone. The U.S. has a Black president who chooses to ignore the even the basic needs of his biggest group of supporters in this country.

Supporters of Barack Obama during his election in 2008.

 In response to the recent escalated mistreatment of Melanoid people, the Senegalese recording artist superstar Akon mentioned that ‘America was never built for Black people‘. This is telling, considering that Akon has an international perspective; and although much of his fame and fortune has obviously been generated here in the States, he has been able to see the hostile racial climate that has taken its toll on Melanoid people (in the States) for what it is.

“How many African-Americans do you know actually consider Africa as a vacation spot? Not one… Even just for knowledge, just to know where they came from, just to get an idea of what that is; there is so much fear instilled in them that they wouldn’t even want to go there to visit. You mention Africa, they start shaking.”
-Akon

In addition to these factors that sum up the Black Experience in America, let us not forget about the Melanoid victims who were left homeless and in dire need of assistance because of Hurricane Katrina. The victims were referred to as “refugees”, as if to suggest that these unfortunate Brothers and Sisters were runaways from another country who had no business in the States anyway. Let us not forget legal constructs that remain relevant within the framework in today’s U.S. government, such as the Dred Scott ruling, and the The Three-Fifths Clause—two instances that explicitly show that Black people are not American citizens, and that we should be considered (by their laws) subhuman in the first place.

One of the most common white supremacist insults said to us over the years has been the “Go back to Africa” line. In hindsight, one has to wonder: Do the people who say such things subconsciously feel that we are not American citizens, or that we do not deserve to be a part of “their country”? While this particular topic is not intended to be one about citizenship, it does indeed raise concerns about our position in this country, and what does it truly mean to be considered a “Black/African/Melanoid-American” having been born in, and spending a great deal of our entire lives within the borders of the United States?

This year, we are quickly approaching another 4th of July Weekend. Considering what a taxing year 2015 has been on the hearts, spirits, and overall morale of Black America, what will this year’s celebration of the 4th of July mean to you?

]]> https://www.melanoidnation.org/what-will-this-years-4th-of-july-celebration-mean-to-black-america/feed/ 40 https://www.melanoidnation.org/racists-on-twitter-strike-again-this-time-unsurprsingly-at-obama/ https://www.melanoidnation.org/racists-on-twitter-strike-again-this-time-unsurprsingly-at-obama/#comments Tue, 19 May 2015 17:46:36 +0000 http://melanoidnation.org/?p=1735 At this current point in time, it’s more than a safe bet to assume that there’s nothing “post-racial” about the United States of America.

President Barack Obama’s Twitter account was opened yesterday morning, only to be welcomed by numerous white supremacist online trolls. Check out some of the bigoted comments in the Tweets below:

https://twitter.com/JohnJJohnsonMN/status/600360370151133185

https://twitter.com/VeselyChekist/status/600330245728804864

https://twitter.com/DudeeGippo/status/600333892688551936

https://twitter.com/jeffgully49/status/600382538398375936

In the past day since the opening of his Twitter account, the “nigger” barrage thrown his way has increased at an unsurprising rate. Although Obama’s blatant denial of Melanoid people’s issues in this country won’t go unnoticed, the white supremacists who have made their bold statements toward him lately are the same “Christian” and “wholesome” Americans who repeatedly expect Melanoid people to forget all of the wrongdoing we suffer on a daily basis under the system of racism/white supremacy.

by B. Clark