One major guiding force behind the above? FEAR.

Some African Americans are absolutely afraid that if they don’t come out in force for undesirables as they would any other black person, it will reflect negatively on the entire race. All racists will be vindicated and all black people will be considered trash. Simply put, it somehow became erroneously assumed by certain persons that the best way to distinguish yourself from the worst among your ethnic group is to stand up FOR the worst members of your ethnic group.

“Fear is the mind-killer” is a notable quote from the Dune series. Attempting to wrap my mind around the above, I most certainly believe it.

There is a fear that if all African American people don’t stand together no matter what, all blackness will vanish from the Earth. If persons venture out or away, and don’t immediately come scurrying back to the fold at the first cry of “racism”, we won’t make it as a people. Of all the threats to the black community, somehow this got pegged as the most realistic: Not defending the race against any and all “external forces” will surely destroy it!

Survival means rallying around the black flag whenever it’s raised and not questioning how it relates to your individual situation. It means stifling your best interests, your better judgment and your rationality. It means even if you are not a stereotype, a hoodlum, or any other undesirable, you must cover for those that are. You must coddle filth. Not separate from, not avoid at all costs, not call out for their DBR behavior…you coddle them. Why? Because some “outsider” feels that they are scum. The fact that someone who is not a part of your group dares to state the obvious is a call to arms and you are running head first into the crosshairs.

Somehow, the fact that it’s scum you are coddling takes a backseat. Forget their dangerousness, their awful behavior, the fact that they’ve beaten, raped and maimed-in this moment it becomes more important to you that someone outside of your group has called scum out as scum. The fear of loss of all blackness due to outside forces dictates that at moments like this, the appropriate thing to do is to rally around and protect the honor of scum. Because that scum is black scum. And the black means ignoring the scum.

“How dare you not coddle our scumbags like we coddle our scumbags!” or “you coddle your scumbags, you should coddle our scumbags, too!” And before you know it, scum and whatever harmful and damaged behaviors this encompasses is no longer relevant. It’s all black. Well, congratulations! You have been successfully derailed and disgraced. After all, I can think of few greater shameful acts of delusion than championing sleaze and slime for the sake of your ethnic group.

The remedy according to this type of fear is to hold up scumbags as high as possible. At the same time, you must make the perceived attack from the outsider(s) MUCH WORSE than anything the scumbags in question could have done. Even if these persons are more mentally, emotionally, and physically harmful to you, the fear of “outsiders” is somehow judged as more lethal and requiring greater action. You and scum are now allies fighting a common enemy: “The Man”.

Face meet palm, meet desk, meet Planet Earth.

This type of fear can manipulate otherwise sensible people into fighting on behalf of some questionable persons and causes. But that fear didn’t come to exist out of thin air.

Coming up in the third and final part: Taking a bullet for indoctrination’s sake

NOTE: I know somebody is going to want to say, “But what about racists who talk about people who aren’t scum, we have to stand up for ____!” That’s not the point or the topic of this particular discussion, so please don’t attempt to derail this post by pretending that my point in this article alludes to the misrepresented or mislabeled by bigotry. IT DOES NOT.

Thanks!