VAN JONES, JUST ANOTHER ANGRY BLACK-MAN?

Attorney Van Jones is an angry black-man, so what? But which black-man is not angry in America, giving what these folks have gone through and are forced to endure daily; just because they have a darker shade of skin pigmentation? Icheoku says, any black-man in America who is not angry, is an exception rather than the norm; and literally does not deserve the black-blood flowing in his veins! Such a person might as well be an Uncle-Tom and Van Jones is not that type of an 'a-hole!'

Van Jones deserves to be mad as hell at a system that formerly enslaved his people, kept them down for so long, discriminated against them, gave them lower opportunities, deems them unemployable, raped their women, hung their men on tree-tops, confined them in inferior neighbourhoods, gave them lower credit lines at higher interest rates, gave them mortgages at rates far higher than their other counterparts in America, denied them educational opportunities through separate but equal segregated schools of yore and which continues till today in the form of private and public school systems, as well as in so many other discriminatory practices which had helped sustain and maintain the chasm between various racial divides in America. So why would Van Jones not be mad and angry at such a pretentious and subjugating society, one may ask?

The irony of it all, what we may call the joker of it, is that all those people fostering these discriminations are usually the first to complain about those "angry black-men;" and you ask yourself, which planet are these pretenders from? Are they telling us that there is no discrimination in America or that those black-men being discriminated against are not supposed to be angry at a system which does not give them a fair fighting chance? If fortunes were to miraculously shift today and they find themselves in the shoes of those 'angry' black-men, would their reaction be any different? Will they not themselves pick up arms in defence of their essence, being and manhood? To these people who beat a people and expect them not to cry, Icheoku says, take a good look at yourselves, your surrounding environment including your office and tell us how many people with different skin coloration work there with you? Tell us how many people with different skin pigmentation that you see each morning as you drop off your kids to school being dropped off in your children's schools? How many persons of color are your neighbors and/or friends? How many colored people are your lawyers, doctors, book-keepers, and/or even restaurateurs?

The problem with racial injustice and inequality in America is that it is being forced underground, more subterranean; it is becoming more and more underground as people are discouraged from discussing it for political correctness? Icheoku says, we need to talk about our differences more often, freely and frequently, in order to continue to breakdown barriers and walls of suspicion; towards understanding ourselves better and become more galvanised as a people. If Van Jones is mad and angry, he is not the only one; he is just one among millions of other black-men who feel heavily shortchanged by a society, which still see them first as 'niggers' irrespective of whether that nigger is a very special person or is a Yale or Harvard law graduate or even the president of the United States of America? So Icheoku says, Van Jones is not the only mad and angry black-man in America and should be left alone. He was not alone in speculating what could have gone awry with September 11, 2001 as many Americans wondered how the terrorists could have pulled such a feat without being detected? Even 700 Club Robertson once claimed that Israeli Sharon was struck by God because of his dalliance with Palestines? So why would Van Jones purported speculation be a crucifixion tool in the hands of bigoted racist Americans?

The Oakland California environmentalist-activist and President Barack Obama's former green-jobs advisor, who was helping chaperon America's transition to a green-tech economy; was forced out of his new dig because of brewing brouhaha of his "anti-white establishment" past? According to the narrative, Van Jones' former organisation, Color of Change, took on Fox Network's Glenn Beck after he branded the president a racist because of his "stupidly" comment about a Cambridge cop who arrested Professor Louis Henry Gates without any reasonable ground? Glenn Beck in fighting back, dug up Van Jones past activism including:- a 2005 profile after the Rodney King verdicts in the early 1990s, where Jones considered himself "a communist?"; his membership of a group that dreamed of an American multiracial socialist Utopian society called 'Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM.' There was also a video of Van Jones wherein he called Republicans "assholes" in a speech he gave earlier this year in Berkeley California? Also there was a 2004 petition which Van Jones had signed calling for an investigation into whether the Bush administration had allowed the 9/11 terrorist attacks to happen in order to sway public opinion for a war against Iraq?

So in a way, Van Jones' cup was literally 'filled' as far as those fanning the embers of racism in America are concerned; and President Barack Obama, who is heavily constrained juggling the white folks, his primary black constituency and other racial divides of America, and who does not ordinarily have the same leeway as any other average Joe white-boy in the White House would have, could not save him? Van Jones had to throw in the towel and scamper for the hills for his safety, from the vampires calling for his blood; and in order to spare the president further hounding as a "socialist angry black-man who has deep seated hatred of white people?" Van Jones who was tagged an evidence of the president's socialist inclinations; is the founder and executive director of Bay Area Police Watch, an organization committed to stopping police misconduct and protecting victims of abuse. Van Jones works directly with individuals who have suffered from police harassment, intimidation, and brutality.

But unbeknownst to these villains, what they say and/or do only increases the level of resentment against their ilks; and the forced exit of Van Jones from the White House office will only serve to the perpetuate the "they really do not care about us" thinking among the black-folks of America! Icheoku says, shamelessly though, these bigots are never seen asking why these American black-men are angry in the first place, which could have since helped solve the problem of their angriness! Rather they perpetuate and propagate the stereotypical hateful-anger which they deploy so effectively to keep and maintain their subjugating status-quo in place, with every black-man being seen as a pitch-fork devil who must be kept at his place in a far distance. Icheoku hopes that Van Jones episode coming shortly at the heels of the Professor Louis Henry Gates incident, both of which truly depict the state of racial tension in our society, will help move race relationships forward; and begin earnestly to heal the wounds of racism in a society which still sees a person primarily through the lens of color, the miracle of Obama's presidency notwithstanding!