Man! Dude! Session #158

(D)ude: Man! There’s a lot of talk about Paula Deen and her cultural primitiveness.

(M)an: Dude! She responded in an all-out uncalled-for manner that embodied the sentiments of the Confederate States of America after South Carolina’s issuing an Ordinance of Secession following Lincoln winning his first term. At that time, 15 states held onto slavery and perceived Lincoln as a threat with his talks to abolish that brazen institution.

D: Man! Paula Deen is saucy and her fans are just as caustic with their demands that their bigoted hostess be reinstated! They are unworthy of a presence on Food Network and QVC.

M: Dude! Snowden is a planted Republican in Hong Kong put in place over there by Karl Rove and his billionaire financiers’ CPAC funds.  

D: Man! I knew something was Republican about the guy! The GOP really polished him up and made him look as scholastic as possible for someone who clearly wanted conservative esteem. Have you noticed how Snowden never manages to say sound or coherent statements? As a typical Republican, he is very invested in speaking without expression or substance.

M: Dude! You’re correct. Do you know whether children are being taught the history of slavery in schools? I don’t recall having come across Wilberforce until fairly recently with the film Amazing Grace.

D: Man! Yes, the film is relatively new. And, no, I don’t think the John Browns of the world have been released from the customary boxes in textbooks proclaiming their sainthood and significance. It is sad to think that humanity does not entrust its children with enough knowledge of the truths of such injustices.

M: Dude! The biggest injustice thus far in the postmodern new millennium is the influx of unfit politicians from the Far Right Wing and the neoconservatives having infiltrated our government locally and statewide through cheating tactics like gerrymandering and disenfranchisement schemes like voter identification that suppress the authenticity of a growing and diversifying electorate.

D: Man! What will happen to affirmative action?

M: Dude! The question really ought to be what have the Republican GOP presidents have done since Richard Nixon to ensnare the debate by chipping substantially at JFK’s Executive Order 10925 and LBJ’s Executive Order 11246, two of the most dynamic federal initiatives for “taking affirmative action to ensure” equal opportunity. You know, the construction industry was one of the first places to see these federal programs take effect?

D: Man! Wow! We’re talking about federal contractors being forced to pledge an end to job discrimination right?  

M: Dude! Yeah, and beginning with Richard Nixon and continuing down to Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and both George Bushes, these Republican GOP presidencies have torn up the basic fabric that JFK bravely implemented and LBJ expanded lucidly in their landmark Executive Orders 10925 and 11246. Oh! And, additionally, it was another three-lettered monogrammed US President who actually began the nondiscrimination practices in modern-era government-funded programs: FDR!

D: Man! What did the Republican presidents since Richard Nixon been up to in order to undermine the FDR, JFK, and LBJ’s Executive Orders?

M: Dude! It’s a good thing you brought up that last point. FDR’s began with an Executive Order too, Number 8802, in response to an upcoming “March on Washington” being organized by civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, the leader of the first labor union comprised mainly of African Americans: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

D: Man! So what did Nixon and Ford and Reagan and both George Bushes do?

M: Dude! President Eisenhower enforced the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court and Kennedy continued the utilization of federal troops to do so. But Richard Nixon came in and placed the stipulation that there be some kind of formulaic goals for minorities. However, this emphasis was struck down from LBJ’s Executive Order 11246 by the Reagan Administration, making the goals and timetables encouraged in 11246 to be viewed as what eventually would be uttered and reiterated by Reagan as “reverse discrimination”…    

D: Man! Sounds to me like LBJ’s Executive Order was convoluted by Richard Nixon’s reevaluation and axed afterwards by Reagan’s Administration.  

M: Dude! You’re exactly right! By 1987, the Reagan Administration chopped the otherwise effective goals and timetables out entirely and insisted that recruitment program outcomes were just as effective as keeping records of women and minorities being hired and getting promoted.

D: Man! It must have sounded like Ronald Reagan and his Administration had reached a bipartisan decision since Richard Nixon had also hobbled with formulaic outcome measures, like the goals and timetables that LBJ’s Administration had set into action.

M: Dude! At the point of 1975, the ratios of White and African American students in higher education were almost even. But then, under Reagan, by 1986 the gains in educational parity in higher education dropped.

D: Man! There were high levels of inequities in the housing industry as well. No wonder we’re still having to deal with the discrimination and segregation practices of right now: White flight and the decline of American cities.

M: Dude! President Clinton’s Executive Order No. 12892 did expand upon JFK’s 11063. But with this Republican House of Representatives, will there even be a Farm Bill that does not attack the social safety net necessities like SNAP? We the struggling poor deserve to have a balanced plate, hence diet, and do care about our children receiving sufficient school meals!

D: Man! In fact, the junk foods that the GOP Republicans term as plausible are, in effect, costing generations their dental health and heaven knows what else? Welfare is getting tied to drug testing the weak and vulnerable those relying on government!

M: Dude! The Republican GOP is uncouth!

D: Man! The Republican GOP is intellectually unfit!