{"id":127,"date":"2008-12-04T12:33:17","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T16:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=127"},"modified":"2008-12-04T12:33:17","modified_gmt":"2008-12-04T16:33:17","slug":"guns-and-the-politics-of-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/guns-and-the-politics-of-race\/","title":{"rendered":"GUNS, AND THE POLITICS OF RACE"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union <\/em><\/a>newspaper got itself splashed all over the Internet recently with a front-page story about panic-buying of guns after the election<\/a>. The story itself was old news: the heavy buying had started before <\/em>the election, ramped up to epic proportions as soon as the results were in, and continues unabated as I write this. <\/span>Publishing the story on 11\/23\/08, the Jacksonville paper was behind its usual fast track in gathering news that is actually new. <\/em> <\/span>What caught the nation\u2019s attention was one individual quoted in newsman Charlie Patton\u2019s story:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn a comment bound to infuriate some gun owners, Mikhail Muhammad, state and Jacksonville chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, said the increasing gun sales were a reaction by \u2018the radical element in the white community.\u2019 \u2018We call it white supremacy anxiety disorder,\u2019 Muhammad said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

It may have infuriated \u201csome gun owners,\u201d but it caused this one to laugh.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m of Syrian descent on my paternal side, and Scotch-Irish on the maternal. \u201cA mutt,\u201d as Barack Obama recently called himself, like so many of us. <\/span>When my eldest was ten, I took her with me on safari in South Africa, in the time of apartheid. <\/em>It gave her a new appreciation of American freedom, a new understanding of her mom and dad telling her what it was like to grow up when there was segregation in parts of our own country. <\/span>And an understanding of what it was like to be the ones discriminated against, <\/em>because under the three-tiered system of White\/Colored\/Black that was apartheid, <\/em>the kid and I were \u201cColored.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

One thing all of us can be thankful about as we review the results of November 4 is that this country finally elected an African-American as its President, and did so thanks to a huge percentage of the Caucasian vote. <\/span>It will go far \u2013 though how far, we don\u2019t know yet \u2013 to exorcise the demons of racism that have haunted our nation\u2019s history for so long.<\/p>\n

\n

Hell, it\u2019s no secret to anyone who reads Backwoods Home <\/em>magazine or <\/em>this blog that the candidate I really wanted was African-American. <\/span>Unfortunately, Condoleeza Rice was apparently too fed up with thankless jobs to run for the one that would have put her in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m feeling an urge to phone the Black Panther HQ in Jacksonville and talk to Mikhail Muhammad. If it\u2019s about \u201cwhite supremacy anxiety disorder,\u201d I\u2019d like to hear his take on why so many African-Americans are buying \u201cassault rifles\u201d and \u201chigh capacity\u201d magazines right now. I\u2019d like to ask him why the website www.newblackpantherjax.com<\/a> says in its \u201c10-Point Platform,\u201d \u201cARMS IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE!\u201d (Point 2) and \u201cThe Second Amendment of white America\u2019s Constitution gives a right to bear arms\u201d (Point 7). <\/span>Hell, I might even ask him if he knew that Martin Luther King was a gun owner. He was also a Republican.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Let\u2019s consider the principle of Occam\u2019s Razor. Often, the simplest explanation is the correct explanation.<\/p>\n

\n

Ya think it just might be that all <\/em>Americans of every <\/em>color are desperately buying certain guns because a President has been elected, and a Party given great power, who made it clear that they don\u2019t want those American citizens to have access to those guns anymore?<\/p>\n

The front page story in question.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Racial elements in the last Presidential race were more layered than they looked.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Black and white alike have been buying guns in the current “run.” Scene is Trail Boss Gun Shop in Sierra Vista, AZ.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union newspaper got itself splashed all over the Internet recently with a front-page story about panic-buying of guns after the election. The story itself was old news: the heavy buying had started before the election, ramped up to epic proportions as soon as the results were in, and continues unabated as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearm-owners-civil-rights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}