Katrina, FUBU and Uncle Tom

Tonights' rant is brought to you courtesy of the wonderful folks at AOL who found it necessary to educate me about Black History (all month long.) I thought today's lesson sounded interesting enough to read. It's about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Actually, it's about the book, the real Uncle Tom and what today's definition of an 'Uncle Tom' is. For those not in the know, or like me haven't read the book in a long, long.....long time, here's a quick refresher. Uncle Tom was a long suffering slave who was sold to one bad owner after another. In the end, he helped other slaves to ecape and was beat to death for not telling where they went. In his dying breaths he forgave the man who beat him. Now...in the eyes of many blacks, he was a traitor for always giving in and doing what 'massa' wanted. (Except, of course, for the final thing.) In the mean time, many historians credit this book with firing up the nice folk of the North enough to cause them to invade the south. It also is thought to have sickened the British enough to convince them not to fight with the Confederacy. So while the book did a great job educating white folk with the reality of the world of slavery, it also created a character which modern blacks hold against one of their own who they feel has 'gone to the other side.' Sssoooooo...let me get this straight.
In today's world, the stated reasons for quotas and anti-discrimination laws is that a black man just cant get ahead with out help. However, if a black man DOES manage (as thousands upon thousands have) to get ahead, he must be a "tom." It's as if it is inconceivable for the black man to get ahead on his own. (According to other blacks, anyways.) So while every proud black parent sends their children off to school with the hopes that he or she will study hard and become someone substantial, their peers and indeed many pop cultural icons are telling them that if they should happen to suceed above the level of their peers, they will be disowned by THEIR OWN PEOPLE. So basically, we're talking about a society that punishes you if you try hard and get ahead, and will reward you and admire you for staying poor, living off the state, (thus making all those dumb white folk and toms pay for their lifestyle) and spending your life bitching that the man is holding you back. Does this make any any sense whatsoever??? It's a self defeating cycle that's just getting worse. One man actually stood before his fellow blacks and tried valiantly to put a stop to it. None other than Bill Cosby himself did a multi-city tour last year and went to inner city lecture halls and implored his fellow people to rise up, get themselves off of the welfare train and be a functioning part of society. In most places, they booed him, called him Uncle Tom and generally threatened to 'do him in' for speaking his mind. Not overly surprising a response from a people who will kill each other over the kind of rap music they might make. (East coast VS west coast.) Trust me, 2Pac and Biggie Smalls were killed by fellow musicians, not 'the man.' Anyways, I think that it is simply amazing that as hard as we might try and indeed even pass laws to help the minorities, they neither want nor need our help. The only help they seem to want comes in the form of our tax dollars being wasted!!
So now I have to wonder...are the CEOs and President of FUBU inc. a bunch of toms? FUBU is an allegedly black owned clothier who's 'trendy fashions' seemed to hit the streets around the same time that rumors were flying that Tommy Pull-my-finger was a racist who couldnt stand the thought of minorities wearing his clothes. (Wonder who started those rumors?) Anywho, I look at the owners of this company as hugely successful. 'Course, that's all subjective. You see, FUBU stands for For Us By Us. In other words, it's like the "N" word. Only they can use it. 'Cept that I have never heard or read about ANY FUBU profits going back to any black organization. No donations to the UNCF...no gifts to the Rainbow Coalition and not one dime to Hurricane Katrina relief. I think when they came up with the For Us part, they meant themselves, not black folk as a whole. So after I laugh at every black person I see wearing a FUBU product, I laugh even harder at all the white folk I see wearing them. Be they unknowing, upity or just a wannabe, I have to give the folks at the company credit for a brilliant campaign. By saying the clothes were for blacks only, it became like forbidden fruit to white folk who either wished to show their 'support' for the black man or who believed that no one could tell them what they could or could not wear. In either case, the money continues to roll in...I wouldnt mind holding some of that stock.
Meanwhile, down in New Orleans, we spent 2.5 million dollars holding Mardi Gras, in case some folk might forget where it's held if we skipped it for a year, being as most of the city was destroyed by the worst natural disaster in the US...ever! I wonder how many homes that money could have built. Speaking of building homes, I cant help but keep hearing how Oprah donated a boatload of money to help build a bunch of them. Nice of her to part with some of her 41 BILLION dollar empire. Same with Bill Gates. I wonder how much he actually put in of his enormous fortune? I think it's worth noting, however, that at least they did something. Loud mouths like Sean Combs and Kanye West seem unable to put their money where their mouth is and continue to be much more part of the problem, than the solution. No surprises there either.