Beasts: Let Us Revisit The Harm That Bill Clinton Allowed To Be Inflicted On Black America.
“Let’s get the confusion straight in ghetto Gotham
The man behind the mask you thought was Batman is Bill Clinton” — The Beast, by the Fugees as rapped by Wyclef.
I love Batman. A rich billionaire who uses his wealth to fight crime. Yet, when one interrogates the legacy of Batman you start to see him being more like the Punisher, than a noble cape-crusader. The Punisher never hides what he is or what he represents. He knows that he is a criminal, full stop. He does not coordinate with the police. There is no skull that hangs brightly in the night sky to summon him. The Punisher is a murderer, full stop.
Batman, preys on those who are weak. The henchmen, not the true crime lords. He beats them silly so that he can work his way up the ladder. In essence, Batman punches down. Further, a popular new theory has made the rounds that Batman exposes part of his face, so that the cops know he is white and are less likely to shoot him.
It can be argued, that Batman made the crime worse in Gotham, as he disrupted the natural order and allowed chaos to spread. As he took down certain criminal gangs, others rose to seize the power that was now abandoned. Batman, some could say, despite his good intentions made Gotham worst. However, Batman’s motivations for crime-fighting were not to protect Gotham, but it was his personal vendetta. He did not care about the risk or the harm to the community, it was purely to soothe his wounds, his trauma.
It was his uncompromising devolution to the mission, his mission, that littered the streets of Gotham with bodies. Metropolis, does not look or feel like Gotham. Central City is not an open warzone, like Gotham. It is Gotham alone that has devolved into hell on Earth.
Bill Clinton, had a mission. A mission to get elected as President of the United States of America. Bill is not a dumb man. Bill Clinton saw how Bush did Dukakis dirty and was not going to allow that to happen to him. Bill was in the middle of campaigning when he flew back to Little Rock, to attend the execution of Rickey Ray Rector (“RRR”).
RRR was a black man with a very low-IQ, in fact today he would not be able to be put to death as it would consist as a violation of his 8th Amendment rights. RRR was sentenced to death after murdering officer Robert Martin. Right after killing him, RRR shot himself in the head, but he survived. However, as result of the gunshot wound, he had effectively given himself a lobotomy. On the day he was to be executed, he lacked the cognitive ability to comprehend what was about to occur, as evidenced by him asking the guard to save his slice of pecan pie for when he returned. This was the man Bill Clinton flew home to watch be executed by the state of Arkansas.
“The subconscious psychology that you use against me
If I lose control will send me to the penitentiary
Such as Alcatraz, or shot up like al Hajj Malik Shabazz
High class get bypassed while my ass gets harassed” — The Beast, by the Fugees as rapped by Lauryn Hill.
The 94 Crime Bill did not increase mass incarceration, what it did was gave cover to the states who had already had, on their own volition, started locking up more people than ever before in American history. Specifically, they started incarcerating black people and the 94 Crime Bill gave them cover.
Bill also implicitly threatened the seats of loyal black members of the Congressional Black Caucus “CBC”, because they had the temerity to be concerned about the harm it might do to the black community. The CBC wanted the Crime Bill to include statistics so any potential harm could be monitored. Clinton, listened and said nothing. What Clinton did is gathered every black mayor in each congressional district of the offending members and invited them to the White House. The message was sent: get on board or my machine is coming after your seat. These mayors were eager to for the opportunity to be with Bill, who some named the first black president. Bill did not even have to say anything, and the members of the CBC withdrew their objections.
States were now free to target black people. The DOJ was allowing police to do anything they wanted. NYC started the stop and frisk program. One innocent boy was stopped and frisked approximately 87 times before he was 18-years-old. When you really think about it, the frisking is sexual assault. A man forces you on the wall and makes you spread your legs and starts to pat down your groin, feeling your genitals and your butt. A stranger is literally touching your penis, if they are performing the frisk, pursuant to regulation and this deviant practice not only took root under the Clinton administration, it thrived.
“Private-DIC sell hits, like porno-flicks do chicks
The 666 cut W.I.C. like Newt Gingrich SUCKS DICK” — The Beast, by the Fugees as performed by Lauryn Hill.
This line by Lauryn Hill might be the hardest verse in all of Hip Hop. It also discusses how, under Clinton, W.I.C (Women, Infant, Children) a program that provides supplemental nutrition for our neighbors who need a hand-up. Under Clinton, the program got smaller. Clinton added work requirements to other safety net programs, which made it more difficult for adults to qualify for supplemental assistance. He was building on the austerity programs of Reagan, who had racialized government assistance to struggling and low-income families by saying there were “welfare queens” and Clinton ran with it, whole hog.
However, the most damaging, detrimental and deleterious bill he passed was the Housing and Community Development Act of 1994. This was some much worst than the Crime Bill. This bill banned anyone who had a felony to live in any residence that was part of Section 8. In fact, if a child was arrested for weed, away from the home, the family would be evicted from the residence. This law broke up families. Parents had to choose between shelter for their whole family or one child. Fathers had to live away from their families, because of a felony conviction. This was evil, and we do not talk about it enough.
Clinton knew he had the black base, but to reach his win number he had to court white people. Nothing is more attractive to white people than racism. It is a scent that they can smell from miles away, a pitch that their ears are perfectly attuned to hear. Bill primed America with so much destructive and subtle racism that it is, in part, why his wife lost to President Trump. Black people watched him to fulfil his mission to be a two-term president, while our communities and families were the sacrifice he gave, which was not his to give, to white America.
Clinton, like Batman, was selfish. He only cared about his mission: not his wife, not Al Gore, not black people, not our body politic, or himself. He was reckless and driven to accomplish the mission. His wife is the one who had to pay for his sins and thus the rest of us. Bill Clinton gave us the first white President of the United States of America: Donald J. Trump.
