THE MODERN DAY RACE BAITERS

  A Birmingham police detective was pistol whipped by a black man, with his own weapon while bystanders stood around taking pictures and mocking him. The following is what the officer told CNN. “A lot of officers are being too cautious because of what’s going on in the media,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous for the safety of his family. “I hesitated because I didn’t want to be in the media like I am right now.” When I saw that the officer was a Birmingham police officer I thought about how much that we have changed as a country in the last 52 years. I was a 13 year old boy when I saw the pictures of the Birmingham police dogs ripping into black protesters and innocent bystanders and the pictures of fireman using high pressure hoses that were powerful enough to rip bricks off of buildings. I am a native born Southerner but I have always hated injustice. No matter who is on the receiving end of it. Being a 13 year old I was not as up on current events and American history as I am now. I have come to realize that racist white people, especially in the South, have always had an unnatural fear that black people would seek retaliation for the wrongs of the past. In certain areas of the deep South where blacks equal or outnumber the white population this fear has been particularly pronounced in an area that has historically been called the Black Belt.

 The term is still used to describe a crescent-shaped region about 300 miles long and up to 25 miles wide, extending from southwest Tennessee to east-central Mississippi and then east through Alabama to the border with Georgia. The demographics of our own area was such that during the Civil War there was a 50% black population in Rutherford County, a 51% black population in Maury County and a 34% population in Davidson County. This is one reason that whites have fought so hard to deny blacks their civil rights, especially the right to vote. Whites knew that with the vote there would be black mayors, sheriffs, councilman, congressmen, and maybe even governors. The white fear was that blacks would use this power to take revenge on the white population. White politicians such as Theodore Bilbo, "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, "Cotton" Ed Smith, Orval Faubus, George Wallace and a multitude of others have race baited in order to capitalize on unfounded white fears.

  Because of the 1964 and 65 Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act blacks have attained the political power that they have deserved all along and for the most part they have not abused this power. No one could foresee however a black president that would one day fulfill the fears of racist whites. We have an angry black man in office who grew up in a comfortable middle class environment that was very remote from the injustices suffered on a daily basis by the black people of Birmingham, such as Condoleeza Rice and so many other black people in 1961, the year of Obama's birth. Personally I suspect that Obama's radicalism extends more from his dysfunctional upbringing than from any racial injustice that he might have experienced.

  We live in a country that for the most part has achieved Martin Luther Kings dream. but the big lie is drummed into our head that we are still living in our racist past. Obama race baits and encourages the hatred of people like Al Sharpton. The lie is told that the police are at war with black people. Like the white racists of old he race baits by playing on black fears that are as unfounded as white fears. Many people then sided with the white perpetrators of injustice. Obama sides with every black perpetrator of today from Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown and beyond. The real war on blacks has been waged by Democratic policies that have kept far too many blacks ignorant and poor. Policies that have spawned gang violence and black on black crime that takes a huge toll in lives.

  The big lie of Obama's rhetoric and the Black Lives Matter movement is causing police officers across the country to fear doing their job. In places like Baltimore murder rates are skyrocketing. In Ferguson Missouri a good police officer lost his career and now fears for his life. It nearly cost the life of a police officer in Birmingham. Fair minded whites and blacks want to see justice done in every situation. Whenever there is a police shooting I don't rush to judgement until I view the circumstances of the case. In the North Charleston shooting, where the cop shot a man down in cold blood, that was an open and shut case for me. The cop needs to suffer the full consequences of the law. Yes we have changed from the days of police dogs, fire hoses and Bull Connor. In one sense we haven't changed. Race baiting is alive and well in the White House.

Janard Cunningham

Injured Birmingham Police Officer