"I'm curious...do you even remember when you first sold out?"
~~Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) in "The Rainmaker"~~~
I always wanted to look some Negroes in the eye and ask them that exact same question.
I mean when does a person come to the realization that he has to put himself and his own selfish needs above the his family, his race, and his community? Does he (or she) just wake up one morning and say; fuck it, I am tired of being one of these Negroes, there has to be a better way? And then what? Do you start a blog? Do you start calling conservative radio and television stations and declare; that I, a black person, hereby renounces my black card? Lord knows I have seen lots of that lately.
I know that it all seems rather simplistic, and the process has to be a lot more complex than that. Maybe a diss by a person of color that they loved once. Maybe a diss by someone in the majority because they were black. Maybe a hatred of their own family because of some fucked up shit that happened in their childhood. Hey, I am no shrink, I am just a black man trying to figure all this shit out. But something had to happen somewhere along the line to these folks.
With some people it's easy to figure out. William Jefferson's sorry ass was just greedy, so he sold out for a refrigerator full of money. Clarence Thomas was never the brightest guy to begin with, and "Charlie"-- not his peeps-- gave him a chance. For that, he will be forever grateful, so he sold out to "Charlie" for whatever "Charlie wants.
But what about people like Walter Williams, Ward Connerly, Larry Elder and their ilk? Clearly they are not the way they are because they think it will benefit black folks. So what is it? Is it for the fame? The money? Do they realize that if they weren't over on the dark side they wouldn't be getting any shine? Was it calculated because they knew that there are far less of us on the dark side, and once they went over A-merry-ca would embrace them? Hey, maybe all the above is true, and maybe none of it is true at all. Maybe these individuals all belong to some secret society to undermine black folks: "Sell Outs & Bones" But it's not only popular conservative pundits. What about all the local democratic politicians and so called leaders, people who sold their offices, churches, and the over all public trust to the highest bidder? What motivated them to sell out?
"I'm curious...do you even remember when you first sold out?
Since I will probably never be able to ask you to your face, If one of my sell out friends lurking would be kind enough to answer that question for me, I sure would appreciate it.
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