Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Ignorance is usually thought of as the passive obverse of knowledge, the darkness retreating before the spread of Enlightenment. But… imagine an ignorance that resists. Imagine an ignorance that fights back. Imagine an ignorance militant, aggressive, not to be intimidated, an ignorance that is active, dynamic, that refuses to go quietly — not at all confined to the illiterate and uneducated but propagated at the highest levels of the land, indeed presenting itself unblushingly as knowledge…
– Charles W. Mills

This the essence of neo liberalism and the manufacture of consensus. whether the issue is the rabid racism of some whites or the profound anti intellectualism of the poor or the extent to which the nation is being conned into paying for the banking crisis. Not only do we meet people who are blinded but are also sincerely and passionately ignorant.

These are critical times for black people in the UK and it is important that we become educated regarding the dangers of uncritical thinking and blind observance of the news.

" When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.' Dresden James

Take the President Obama birth certificate issue. when one looks at the deep psychology of those who believe that the President is not an American you get a snapshot of the white American psyche.

'The cognitive motivation behind their defense of a primitive belief that this man is not a legally elected president is based on a core fundamental conservative belief that a “real” American is by definition a white, Christian conservative. There’s no way they will ever be able to square the idea that a black centre/right Democrat could legitimately represent a majority the American people.' Edward-Yemil Rosario

Racism by its very nature is a form of mental illness.It has the ability to maintain and reinforce its own prejudice in the face of overwhelming facts that illustrate its sheer stupidity.

Both here and in the US the insidious culture of racism infects human relationships at a personal and political level and no, denial is not a river in Egypt. Is the President an American? That the question can be asked and then treated seriously speaks volumes about Western society’s perception of the essential humanity of black people and the extent to which black people are excluded from the national perception of inclusive citizenship. Obama can't be President because he is black - we can't be truly British for exactly the same reason.