Silent Terrorism A Look at American Racism and Hypocrisy

By George Foster

The last six words in the Pledge of Allegiance, “With liberty and justice for all,” continue to ring hollow for many Americans and will continue to do so until it becomes clear to all Americans that it is as difficult for the African American community to see justice in the continued murders of unarmed black men at the hands of men and women in blue as it was for white America to see justice in the acquittal of O. J. Simpson in the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson twenty-plus years ago.

Silent Terrorism, A Look at American Racism and Hypocrisy was written in hopes of opening dialogue and stimulating conversation about race in America. I have been blessed to travel to many countries outside the United States of America, giving me a very good understanding and appreciation of the benefits of being born a citizen of the greatest country in the world. As great as this nation is as a whole, as honorable as its ideals are, the founding fathers left huge holes in its foundation related to race and racism which continue to divide our nation today. The tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by racist men in our society today differ from those of their forefathers. Their TTPs continue to evolve, change and are embedded in every facet of our lives, our justice system and our government which, from its inception, has been a state sponsor of terrorism (racism) within its borders. One can argue that many of the atrocities committed by the founding fathers and other immigrants from Great Britain were necessary to establish and build this nation; that excuse cannot be used to explain the continued racism, voter disenfranchisement, repealing of the Voting Rights Act, many of today's laws, and a grand jury system that continues to allow for the murders of unarmed black Americans. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, said “most of the black scientists in this country do not come from the most advanced schools” and black students do better at “slower tracked schools.” Scalia continued to express his racist views from the bench when he said students of color are being “pushed into schools that are too advanced for them” due to race-conscious affirmative action policies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781640271067

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Silent Terrorism

http://www.vitisphere.com

A Look at American Racism and Hypocrisy

George Foster

Copyright © 2017 George Foster

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-64027-105-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64027-106-7 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Built on Terrorism

http://www.vitisphere.com

Racism in America

Terrorism at Home

http://www.vitisphere.com

American Racism

http://www.britishrose.synthasite.com/resources/Pledge%20of%20Allegiance.jpg

I dedicate this book to

my beautiful wife, Sara, and our children, to my mother, to my brothers, Ricky, Eric, Bruna, and my sister, Mavis. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Howard University, where I received my undergraduate education and to my distinguished brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Thank You, to ThinkProgress and all the other media outlets that so graciously allowed me to cite or quote articles they published online. Every article cited in this book was also covered by other major news outlets (The Washington Post, Huffington Post, etc.), but those outlets wanted fees ranging from $1,000 to $12,000 for their articles to be cited.

Most of all, I want to thank God and my church family at New Jerusalem Community Church for helping me to become the man I am today. Iron sharpenth iron; so a man sharpenth the countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27:17). My faith in God, my family and my upbringing, along with being blessed to attend Howard University and become a member of the oldest and most prestigious black Greek-letter fraternity have shaped my mind and my heart and have given me the understanding that I am my brother’s keeper. Becoming a father has deepened my desire to become more involved and active in my community in hopes of leaving a better world for my children.

I will talk more about my family and my upbringing later in this book. In the following pages, I would like to share with you a few of the cornerstones of my life.

I made the conscious decision

to write this book from a perspective, one not taken by most Americans, in hopes that it will open minds to a different way of thinking, help us see our history differently, and hopefully help us understand where our society is today and how we got here. I hope this book not only sparks conversation but also causes my fellow Americans to look at the man in the mirror and ask some hard questions about your position on race, racism, the justice system, policing and politics. Do you have any room left in your hearts for compassion for your fellow man? Have the hard work and sacrifices you’ve made to gain the level of success that you have attained caused you to feel that anyone who hasn’t attained the same level of success is lazy and unwilling to work hard and make similar sacrifices? Do you have a false sense of comfort, believing that because you aren’t racist, actively oppressing, killing or disenfranchising minorities that you are in no way contributing to the problems in our society? Does your view of the Second Amendment put owning a gun above all other concerns about the community you live in and the countless lives that are lost due to gun violence every year?

I Love America, and I Love my African American heritage. My grandparents taught me to take pride in our family name and taught me the importance of family. I’m also a part of a much bigger family, the American Family. This book tells a story about how the American Family has always and continues to treat one branch of the family tree (African Americans) as the black sheep or unwelcome members, despite the love and support we have always given to this family, and this country in hopes of someday being seen and treated as equals.

I came across a comic below which is a parody of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Due to copyright laws, images of both Calvin and Hobbes can’t be used, so Donald Trump and a leprechaun have been used to replace them. The cartoon makes light of Donald Trump’s attitude, personality and some of the things that he said during the campaign to rally his base.

C:\Users\George\AppData\Local\Temp\Trump1-1.png

We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust the legal system. We don’t trust the media. And we don’t trust one another. Donald Trump has been elected to the most powerful office in the free world because he repeatedly espoused these ideas before an angry American public, while a group made up primarily of minorities, espousing the same lack of trust in the legal system, police and government are labeled terrorist for exercising the constitutional right to march and protest police brutality and their treatment by the justice system. What is the difference? Why is it that the American public is so willing to accept Donald Trump bashing the American government, the legal system, and the media but attacks a group supporting African Americans wanting better treatment from their government? Why attack, vilify, and label a group of Americans terrorist for peacefully marching and making the same statement that Donald Trump repeatedly made while campaigning for President of the United States?

American society appears to be at its lowest point in recent history in terms of race relations. The coming months and years are going to determine the future of this country. It will determine how we view and treat our fellow Americans. Donald Trump will put judges on the court that will make decisions that will shape our lives for decades to come. We must not forget what America represents; we must not forget our Christian or our American values. No matter the current state of our society, we control our future. We must do as our ancestors and always hope and strive for a better tomorrow. We must not give in to the evils of the world and allow ourselves to become consumed by the negatives. There is nothing wrong with our society that we, together, cannot fix.

Don’t Quit

Unknown

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twist and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many of fellow turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow—

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man;

Often the struggler has given up

When might have captured the victor’s cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out—

The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It might be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Chapter I

Voting Rights: Disarming Americans of the

Most Powerful Weapon

I was born and raised

in Lake City, Florida, to a family that was rich in love, family pride, and self-worth. I was raised mostly by my grandparents as my mother (divorced) worked shift work at the VA Hospital. She worked rotating shifts (days, swings, and midnight), so living with our grandparents assured that we would be taken care of and that someone would always be there to make sure that we were disciplined and given all the things children needed.

My grandparents were old-school. Mr. Garfield and Mrs. Leola had raised nine children of their own and might as well have been founding members of the school of Thou shall not spare the rod and a child should know the difference between grown-ups and kids. Our current military could have learned a thing or two from them about separation of ranks. Yes, sir, No, sir, Yes, ma’am, and No, ma’am were the beginning of every sentence out of our mouths. That was the society in which I was raised. This was not isolated to the English Family household; this was a way of life in the community in which we lived. The old adage It takes a village to raise a child was how we were raised. Everybody was related in some way, and we knew that whatever we did in the community would normally get back to our home and family before we did. Depending on what misdeed we did, discipline could be handed out at any house between the location of our misdeed and home, and then possible multiple times at home. My grandparents would discipline us and would most likely tell our mother when she came home from work, which would be another opportunity for us to be disciplined. Pride in one’s family name was important, similar to our national pride following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Wherever we went, we represented our grandparents, our family, as if we were family ambassadors.

Our upbringing was part of a system of raising children to be respectful contributing members of society. The system had been tested and perfected like the U.S. Marine Corps making a Marine or the Penn State football team producing linebackers (back in the day). Our upbringing was part of a system that guaranteed a respectful, principled, disciplined child would be produced. Education was a very important part of that system, and it started at home. Most, if not all, of the valuable lessons we learned about being a member of our community was taught at home or in the small community in which I lived. My formal education was done at a public school, which did very little teaching of moral but had the authority to correct behavioral problems in ways that didn’t amount to what is considered child abuse in our schools today. The threat of the school contacting my mother was far worse than anything the teachers or any administrator would dream of doing to me. Growing up, everybody I knew received a formal education from public schools—maybe private schools didn’t exist then. I didn’t know anybody rich enough to afford private school. Public school education didn’t include any positive examples or role models for young black kids. My grandfather was my male role model, and to this day, I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

I think the lack of role models is one of the major issues with our society today. Children today are being raised by cable television shows like, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Real Husbands of Hollywood, I Am Cait (formerly known as Bruce Jenner), Empire, and the list goes on and on. It seems that every other week, there is a new television series geared toward wasting another hour of our lives and keeping our focus away from real issues in our society. Not one episode of any of the above-mentioned shows teaches us or our youth anything about principles, morals, or how to be a productive, contributing member of society, nor do they provide positive role models. Social values have shifted so far that we focus more on the lives of the rich and famous, or those around them who have never done anything other than being related to or just part of their entourage. They (the rich and famous, or their entourage) have become our role models, most of whom aren’t what you would call pillars of society.

The news media continues to quote Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol, who has contributed nothing to better our society. Bristol has no qualifications to be a political analyst for any serious news outlet, yet Fox news and some internet sites quote her on social and political issues. Bristol Palin, called off her engagement days before her schedule wedding due to her second unplanned pregnancy. This second unplanned pregnancy occurred after Sarah and Bristol Palin had worked a deal to get Bristol paid to give speeches about abstinence to young girls. Bristol said that her second pregnancy was a huge disappointment to her family, but didn’t mention disappointment of the organization that paid her reportedly upwards of $250,000 for speeches she made about abstinence. The Palins are just one example of people the media regularly uses to comment on political and moral issues in our society. The list is endless (the Bush twins, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Billy Bush, and almost any entertainer or professional athlete who is willing to be used by the media as a salesman or media-appointed role model.) These are people that society sees as accomplished because of their family pedigree or their God given talents, but most are not qualified to be either political analysts or role models to our children.

Charles Barkley said it best when he said, I’m not a role model… Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids. Role models for our kids should be someone they can relate to at home.

Many prominent African American leaders criticized him for making that statement, but truer words have never been spoken.

Because of my upbringing and the values instilled in me by my grandparents, I never thought of Charles Barkley or any celebrity as a role model. Charles was just someone I liked as a professional basketball player. Black leaders took issue with Charles Barkley for making the statement and argued that because he was in the public eye as a black athlete, he bore the responsibility of being a role model for our kids. Attacking the messenger and denying any criticism directed toward the African American community was and still is standard practice by the talking heads the media uses to represent us. We do this, it seems, as an instinctive self-defense move and never seem to acknowledge that we play a part in our plight. Bill Cosby was criticized for making a negative statement about our African American youth. For me there is a time…when we have to turn the mirror around, he said. Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you’re sitting in. Some African American leaders knew Cosby’s statements to be fundamentally true, but spoke negatively of Mr. Cosby because they felt as if his comments equated to publicly airing of the family’s dirty secrets.

Instead of criticizing Bill Cosby, we should accept the truth of what he said and take a long hard look in the mirror and begin the process of healing our community, our families, and ourselves. I know the reference to Mr. Cosby is controversial, given what is being reported in the news today about him, but that doesn’t change the truth in his statements about the lack of focus, responsibility, self worth, parenting and other negative aspects of our communities. Mr. Cosby’s comments are true not only of the African American community, but apply to most communities in America as bad apples or criminals exist in every culture. Mr. Cosby is another example of why we must be very careful of whom we put on pedestals and whom we choose as role models. Attacking Mr. Cosby or those like him with valid criticism of any aspect of the African American community equates to a killing the messenger type attitude and amounts to giving a pass to those in our communities whose actions deserves to be criticized. When we rebuke valid criticism of ourselves and communities, and then criticize the American government for the various forms of oppression suffered by African Americans we lose creditability for the cause(s) we wish to bring attention. This is a major part of the reason that a very large segment of White America can’t support causes like Black Lives Matter. The first thing that comes out of their mouths is "What about the black-on-black crime, which far outnumbers the number of savage beatings and the meaningless killings by police? Why don’t you march for the untold numbers of innocent black youth that are being killed by black-on-black crime, like Tyshawn Lee, a fourth grader who was targeted by a gang during the week of November 5, 2015?

Tyshawn Lee, by all accounts, was a normal nine-year-old boy who was lured from a playground not far from his grandmother’s house. Some news outlets reported a monster approached him and lured him into an alley and murdered him. In a recorded conversation, the murderer bragged and told a jailhouse informant that Tyshawn was on a swing when he approached him and asked, Do you want to go to the store?

I don’t have any money, the fourth grader answered.

I’ll buy you whatever you want, the monster said.

Initially, police had believed that the fourth grader, Tyshawn Lee, was caught in a gunfight between gangs. At a news conference in the alley where Tyshawn was killed, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Lee’s father was involved in a gang and that the death was linked to rivalry with another group. McCarthy said the father was not cooperating with police. This is a different level, McCarthy said. These are noncombatants now being assassinated. … This is an innocent child. This is a nine-year-old child targeted, lured to this spot, and murdered. This is different.

Three months before Tyshawn’s murder, Boone-Doty (one of the three suspects) was paroled from the Illinois Department of Corrections after serving about two years of a five-year sentence in a drug and gun case. He also served time in state prison for at least one prior weapon conviction. Boone-Doty is a reported habitual criminal who went hunting for the fourth grader with the intent to torture him by cutting off his fingers and ears but, at the last minute, decided to shoot him in the head. This is a new low in a lawless city where gang violence and stray bullets far too often cut short the lives of innocent civilians, both young and old. Again, Tyshawn was different. His death was not accidental; he was hunted because he was the son of a member of a rival gang. The killing of Tyshawn seems to break the gang code where children, mothers, and grandmothers were believed to be off-limits.

Shortly following a press conference in the alley where Tyshawn was murdered, Tyshawn’s father, Pierre Stokes, was questioned by police. Mr. Stokes was not very cooperative. He told reporters that he was not a gangbanger type and he didn’t know anyone who would want to hurt his son.

The only thing I can do to help is to help my son, he said. Lay him down peacefully.

Father Michael Pfleger, a priest and social activist from the neighborhood, told reporters that in the past, gang members left one another’s children alone but that the code had eroded. A baby was assassinated right behind us in this alley. … We have gone to a new low, said Pfleger, who offered to personally pay to relocate anyone who came forward with information and was scared of retaliation.

McCarthy, Pfleger, and community leaders pleaded for people to get over their fear and to abandon the no-snitch code of Chicago’s streets and come forward with information about the murder. They offered a $35,000. On the day prosecutors revealed the tape recording, Pierre Stokes, Tyshawn’s father—another repeat offender—allegedly shot three people, including the girlfriend of one of the three suspects of his son’s murder.

In a similar case, over the Fourth of July weekend 2015, police said a seven-year-old Chicago boy was shot dead by gang members going after his father, who allegedly is in a gang. A Chicago man has been arrested and charged in that case.

This new low in our society’s gang violence targeting our most innocent, our helpless children, before they even have a chance to decide which direction their lives will take seems unthinkable in America, in a civilized nation with child protection laws that professed to care about human rights. I ask myself, how do we accept gun and gang violence that target and hunt down an innocent nine-year-old boy? But then I’m reminded that America is the same country that has learned to accept tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where twenty lives between six and seven years old were taken; Virginia Tech, and countless other atrocities.

Most of us have never heard of Tyshawn Lee or the thousands like him that die far too early because of black-on-black crime but are willing to march to bring attention to the injustice of a much smaller number of reported high-profile police brutality cases and police killings, of which only a small number make the national news. Many people (white and black) look at movements like Black Lives Matter as the hypocritical side of the black community because of the way the media reports on the black community there appears to be little to no responsibility taken by the black communities for black-on-black crime. Their logic of look in the mirror and clean up your own issues before looking at or blaming white America for injustices seems to be valid, but it fails to acknowledge that there are many problems in our society, many sides or parts to complex issues in America, and that we should be capable of focusing on multiple issues at the same time. Using this logic means the Black community can’t have valid issues with education, policing, police brutality, voting rights, housing, equal opportunity or a host of other issues without first resolving black on black crime.

Many Americans have a negative view of the African American community’s response to black-on-black crime because the media isn’t in the black community talking to the African American pastors and leaders about efforts to stop black-on-black crime. It doesn’t sell papers or increase ratings. The Black Lives Matter movement is meant to bring attention to one issue: the systemic problem of police brutality and injustice in American, for which minorities have no control of and have grown tired of living with. Many minorities feel that mass protest is the only way to be heard. African Americans (as well as Mexican Americans) live in an America that is similar to a police state or where some members of the police force act like overseers on plantations during slavery, demanding reverence from minorities because they feel that minorities are beneath them. Many do not value the lives of minorities, nor do they see them as being on par with other members of society and, therefore, feel they can take the life of a minority without so much as a second thought, or consequence.

In video after video, African Americans are beaten, shot, and senselessly killed with little to no provocation or for minor infractions of the law that would not have required any police interaction if done in a white community or by someone of the white race. This is the unjust, unequal America that most African Americans live in and recognize, while many White Americans choose to believe that America is truly the land of the free, the land of equality, and believe in the concept of liberty and justice for all. Along with this vastly different view of America, many White Americans lack compassion and fail to view social and racial issues from any perspective other than the one displayed and perpetuated by the crooked, untrustworthy media spoken of by Donald Trump.

To compound the issue, each time there is a racial incident, the media rushes to put the Reverend Jessie Jackson or Reverend Al Sharpton on the news to give the black perspective, knowing that most of white America change the channel and refuse to listen to Jackson or Sharpton because of their hatred for both of them. In today’s society, Van Jones (CNN commentator) is a far more acceptable choice to give commentary of the social issues from an African American perspective. In today’s society, there is no meaningful dialogue; there is no positive exchange of ideas about race in America. People on both sides of the race issue choose to avoid the issue because it brings out too much raw emotion. This is the reason we are unable to make any real progress on race in America and the reason our society continues to sink into chaos and despair. When the discussion turns to race, police brutality, immigration or any form of social injustice, we see things from only one perspective; we think the topic of race is one-dimensional (black or white), which is unlike everything else in the world we live in. With all other topics or issues, we usually think there are always more than two sides to a story. No real problem is usually resolved by the first simple solution that comes to mind because no real problem is clearly black or white. With every issue except race there is always a number of different shades of gray. Because of the history of race and discrimination in America, talking about race is taboo. It is much more comfortable for America to focus on the progress that has been made in the last fifty years. We only talk about race if there is a major headline in which a racial problem rears its ugly head. Instantly, both sides run to their respective corners, circle the wagons, point fingers, and continue to see the other side as the root of the problem. As new generations of Americans are born, we either knowingly or unknowingly teach them that this is how we deal with race and racial problems in America. Those with enough social consciousness or integrity to look at the race problem in America and see the injustices are such a minority that they remain quiet for fear of becoming a social outcast and being ostracized by their friends and family.

Race isn’t the only problem in our society, the current generation of young Americans is inundated with the lives and success of the rich and famous. The role models of our youth are young professional athletes, privileged movie stars (young and old), singers and rappers, and anybody else the news media (establishment) decides to put in front of them (Kardashians, the Bush Twins, Bristol Palin, etc.). Our American value system and moral compass now resemble the police records, divorce records, and immoral character of the rich and famous. We glorify their broken families, drug usage, infidelities, self-destructive life, lies, multiple marriages, and privileged attitude, which tells them that their money gives them the right and ability to do whatever they want with no regard for their fellow man (for example, Donald Trump said, And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.) We have become a society with no moral compass, no honor, and no integrity. We have lost all sense of right and wrong. Our role models are the people without virtue we see in the media, to whom we cannot relate. I watch sports on cable television, watch Tiger Woods play golf, watch MJ, AI, Bird, Rodman, and others play basketball, watch Greg Hardy, Bret Farve, and Michael Irving play football, but have never thought they were role models. I celebrate their success, the fact that God has blessed them with the ability to do something extremely well, while always remembering that they are just men with the same faults and flaws that men have had throughout history. Each and every time we see their fall from grace, we are surprised and taken aback. In the end, we should be reminded that they are no different than us, just selfish, sinful, flawed, weak men like so many before them. The value system that my grandparents taught me has disappeared from today’s society. Street values, gang code, doing whatever it takes to get what you want, and placing no value on what belongs to others seem to be what society is built on today. Principles and values aren’t taught, preached or enforced at home because society has changed, because principles and values have been lost and are not instilled in children by the young mothers and fathers of today’s generation. Some parents fear the justice system that tells them they can’t discipline their kids. They fear the opinion of those who don’t live in their homes and don’t contribute to the upbringing of their children. They fear child protective services (the ultimate judge on how to raise our children). Public school teachers dare not try teaching morality; they take the easy way out and call the police, which are now present in public schools to handle disciplinary problems. School systems and teachers barely take an interest in teaching the material they are paid to teach. The primary interest of the public school system are the test scores that determine how much money the schools get from the state or federal government. Most public schools and teachers have the same attitude college professors have who get paid to teach the material; if your child fails to show up to class or doesn’t learn the course material; doesn’t matter. Once college professors present the material; their job is done. If college students don’t learn the material they have to pay to take the class during another semester. Public schools with the mantra No Child Left Behind are moving kids through the system who aren’t learning the basics. It is no longer important that kids get a good education.

Today’s public-school teachers are more concerned about their safety from parents and students than they are about providing an education. This is due to the change in the American value system and the lack of respect of authority throughout America today. Teaching has become a difficult and sometimes dangerous profession. Teacher’s salaries aren’t reflective of the importance or difficulties of the job; therefore, the effort and