Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
GIVE'M AN INCH THEY'LL TAKE A MILE
http://www.shmoop.com/life-of-frederick-douglass/chapter-6-full-text-2.html
"GIVE A NEGRO AN INCH, AND HE'LL TAKE A MILE,"
IS AN OLD RACIAL IDIOM. IT MIGHT ALSO BE NATIONAL PROPHESY. ITS APOSTROPHE HAS BEEN REALIZED IN THE TENS OF MILLIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO HAVE MADE IT THROUGH A TORRENT OF TERRORISM, RACIAL APARTHEID, AND MORE SUBTLE NEO-COLONIAL RACIAL DISCRIMINATION. THAT IDIOM DEMONSTRATES THE EXPONENTIAL SUBSTANCE, THE DIVINE ESSENCE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS, INDEED, OF AFRICANS IN THE AMERICAS. THE IDIOM HAPPENS TO BE IS ROOTED IN MAGNITUDES, IN MULTIPLES, IN RATIOS OF EUCLID'S GEOMETRY. IT IS "PHI" AND "PI" IN NATURE. ALTHOUGH ITS PROPONENTS, MAY NOT KNOW IT--QUITE OBVIOUSLY DID NOT KNOW IT--ELSE THEY WOULD HAVE THEN ALLOWED THEM FULL CITIZENSHIP THAT THEY HAD EARNED IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, THE WAR OF 1812, THE CIVIL WAR, WORLD WARS I & II, VIETNAM, CIVIL RIGHTS, BLACK POWER LONG AGO!
THIS SO-CALLED NEGATIVE RACE IDIOM IS ACTUALLY INVERSE EXPONENTIAL ADMIRATION, DISGUISED AS RACIAL CONDEMNATION. THANK YOU!