22 May The Clintons: Bill & Hillary’s Two-Faced Relationship With Black Americans
Author of “The New Jim Crow” Points Out The Clinton’s Two-Faced Dealings With Black Americans
Michelle Alexander is an author, legal scholar and Black American woman who knows the inner workings of the first Clinton Administration. In an interview on All In with Chris Hayes, she was able to do with grace and pleasantness what 90% of other black women cannot do, myself included — tell you off with a smile.
I mean a soft, pleasant smile accompanied by a light, friendly and airy quality in tone of voice. I mean like if the TV had been on mute, you’d think she were discussing her new book on baking the perfect muffin. But what she explained to Chris Hayes is that not only is the democratic system broken beyond repair, but that its black voters need to understand or perhaps overstand what and who they vote for with a vote for Hillary Clinton.
In layman’s terms, Bill Clinton made Black Americans feel human and appreciated when he came to our churches and sang along with hymns, he made us feel like we mattered when he walked the streets, entered barber shops and shook hands while having conversations with Black men like they were actual men worthy of conversation, but the hand he used to shake those of the Black men, was the one he’d used to wipe with.
You see, while Black people were ‘hee-heeing’ and ‘haw-hawing’, drooling and fawning over Bill Clinton and his relatable image — the one where he played sax, smoked weed (though he didn’t inhale) and got a ‘BJ’ from his side chic in the White House, Black people didn’t realize that he was killing our families with a stroke of his pen. Hell, he admitted it. When President Obama criticized mass incarceration, Bill Clinton responded to the elephant in the room saying, “Yesterday, the President spoke a long time and very well on criminal justice reform, but I want to say a few words about it. Because I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it.”
Thanks, Billie. Because when he says “made it worse”, he means to tell you that by the time he left the White House, the prison populace was up by 60%. Sixty. What do you think that did to families? Black, white or yellow.
The bill Bill is referring to? The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Which is akin to California’s Three Strikes Law in that when a person picks up a third felony, they receive a mandatory life sentence. That in itself is criminal. Let alone the worst part — states were offered BILLIONS of dollars to build prison complexes but only if they enacted something called “Truth In Sentencing”, which included the mandatory life sentences on top of reduced parole eligibility. Life in prison should be reserved for non-rehabilitatable, violent and deviant offenders like murderers, rapists and those in those subcategories, not people with drug problems and other such rehabilitatable crimes and behavior. What Bill Clinton enacted was a Federal Law that took people away from their families and said lock them up and throw the key off the Grand Canyon. With the privatized prison industry, this creates incentives to lock people up for cheap labor equaling massive profits.
Anyone else immediately think of NAFTA? I mean, what NAFTA is, is the non-prison version of the Violent Crime Control Act. Sending jobs and employees to prison for cheap labor and sending American jobs to Mexico for cheap labor under the disguise of “better trade relations”. Who has an interest in cheap labor? Corporations. So, with the signing of two major bills which hurt Americans as a whole, and African-Americans in part, whose interest was Bill Clinton acting for? Corporations — and are relations better between Americans and Mexicans when we have an entire group of people who want to build a wall to keep Mexicans out? I’m going to say, “nah”. What about billions for school programs, which have been cut?
The Clinton’s play one clever game of chess. They depend on the ignorance of the Black voter who will vote for the person they feel they know, with the familiar name and that cool-ass husband who likes weed and ‘BJ’s. I would tell you to do your homework, but it’s kinda done for you. Know who you’re voting for, not just their name.
How, you ask, does Bill’s actions reflect on Hillary? Take a wild guess. I have nothing further.
Cory Defiance Austin
Posted at 10:43h, 24 MayDope article, very well informed. Bill Clinton was one of the catalyst in creating a well oiled machine out of the Prison Industrial Complex. Great Read.
Ecababy
Posted at 10:58h, 29 MayYes he was. This is what people don’t seem to understand, his role in creating a corporate structure out of sending people to prison. I know a man who was sentenced to life on inflated king pen charges and was just released after 27 years, he received a Presidential Pardon and that’s great, but it’s impossible to undo the damage and give that man back almost 3 decades.