Celebrating Black History Month...Well, there's your trouble!!!

After being reminded by a few fellow bloggers that this is the 99th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's birth, I got to thinking about some things.

I was always a Reagan fan. In fact, the first vote I ever cast for US Presidential electors was for those that had committed to Reagan. I've already told y'all about how I wanted to name my eldest son after him, but The Mrs. nixed it...so, I won't go back through all of that.

But, I have rethought things today, as I have been reading junk on the worldwide computer. I'm pretty sure that the reason Black History loving folks have got it so bad now on Feb. 6, 2010 is Reagan.

Yep! They were doing just fine until the old guy got elected President. Heck, they were swimming in money, and opportunity, and living the good life under Jimmuh Cahtuh, and really everybody else that held the office before RayGun! Reagan screwed everything up for the black folks. If you don't believe me, just read what some of the negro experts have to say about it...

Why, no less than Walter Fields, writing in Black America Today 'splains a good bit of it while talking about how he could not mourn the death of RayGun:

Ronald Reagan, with the precision of a maniacal surgeon, began to dissect two decades of civil rights gains and set the stage for the rise of a reactionary, and patently racist, politics that still fills the nation’s air with a noticeable stench.

And, that ain't all:

Reagan’s attitude was no different on the domestic front. Under the guise of “devolution” or new federalism, he proceeded to attempt to dismantle domestic programs that had a disproportionate impact upon Blacks and the poor. He reduced the affirmative action requirements of corporate recipients of federal contracts and cutback oversight; diminished the role of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in filing discrimination claims; and drastically cut the federal and state welfare rolls under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The anti-Black, anti-poor venom that came out of the Reagan White House spared no one. Even children were not safe. At one point the administration reduced federal funding for school lunches, going so far as to classify ketchup as a vegetable.


It gets mo' worser:

Reagan also ushered in an era of Black conservatives, right-wing apologists whose complexion confounded critics, threw the civil rights establishment off-balance, shielded the president from being taken to task for his assault on racial minorities and the poor, and enchanted a media that was somewhat amused by what appeared to be a fissure in the Black community. He placed Clarence Pendleton on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission while attempting to force longtime commissioners off the panel, and attempting to end its historic role as an independent watchdog. Reagan then forced fed us Pendleton’s namesake, Clarence Thomas, and gave him free reign to destroy the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); setting us up for Thomas’ eventual appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

See? There's your trouble!

And this Walter Fields ain't the only negro genius that has figured this out. Nope! We've also got some wisdom from MANY lovers of Black History Month from this post by Roland Martin, the FOUNDER of Black America Today, on the passing of Reagan...(In all fairness to Roland, he did present some kind words from black folks about President Reagan...you can hit that link back there and read them.)

De-Troit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: (This was before he went to jail) "He'll have two different legacies. He'll be cemented as the symbolic political leader of conservatives forever. It's no secret that African Americans didn't have a strong affinity for his policies, like trickle down economics. That decimated urban areas. But he also was a president of the greatest country in the world and I send my condolences to his family."

See, there's your trouble. Reagan decimated urban areas.

And from the highly respected historian, and man of letters, Actor Danny Glover:

"We all know Reagan's legacy, from the Iran-Contra affair to the funding of the Nicaraguan military in which over 200,000 people died. The groundwork for the move steadily to the right happened with the Reagan administration. People want to elevate him to some mythic level; they have their own reason for doing that."

See, there's your trouble. Heck, Danny says it, so it must be so. I mean, he's real smart, and knows everything about geopolitics, and wars, and black folks stuff. Really, he does! So, Reagan is responsible for all them Nicaraguans (people of color, I think maybe) getting killed.

So, I have changed my mind on Reagan due to all this new information that has come to light.

I'm glad The Mrs. talked me out of naming #1 son Ronald Reagan Reeves. He'd probably have grown up to be a raaaaaaaaaacist, and despise negroes. Just like Reagan did!