Christopher Dorner did choose to go into the Navy, but this doesn't mean he has a military-industrialist complex. He chose to join the LAPD, but this doesn't mean he sought to serve the elites in keeping the rabble in line.
We don't know what experiences INFORMED his choices, and before you quickly apply the standard of White Male Affluence on a working-class BLACK man, take a breath and count to 100.
When I worked with the San Francisco Unified School District, about 10 of my kids signed up to go into the military. I did not want them to go. I kept the military out of my office. I tried to dissuade them. All were students of color, poor, and signed up without exception to get money for college. Do not infer from this that I am a "Support the Troops" cheerleader anymore than I am thankful that Walmart workers have jobs. In our failed state our ground is littered with institutions that only seek to grind us up for profit. These institutions wage war on us everyday, and its passed time that we bash back.
Until 7 years ago I went from harmless, politically correct jobs like publishing, the YMCA of San Francisco, and a longer tour of duty as a public school teacher and into a job with the federal government. The economy has narrowed things for everybody and their brothers and sisters, but worse for a Black man. Black men KNOW this, and many acknowledge this openly [this is called "anger" by some Whites, who like to rebut how far we have come ...]. White men, even some White men on the Left, don't quite get it.
So when people suggest certain motives to Dorner for joining the LAPD, or suggest he's only pissed because he got fired they are showing a pathological ignorance to what is going on in this country, among people - James Baldwin often reminded us - "are your brothers."
The publishing company is gone. The YMCA downsized. The schools are STILL laying off. That is why I got a low-paid post with the federal government. No one else would or has to this hour hired me.
I moved to Los Angeles almost 10 years ago in search of new opportunities, and I walked into Johannesburg. No temp agencies would take me, save one, which gave me a two-day job with 10 released convicts [all of color] setting up tents for the Beverly Hills Art Show.
From the start, the YMCA here called me in for interviews based on my resume and experience, and I never heard from them again [Westchester, Hollywood, Long Beach, and Mission Viejo Branches]. Not even a "No, thank you."
All my friends continue to be surprised at my "choice" of jobs, given my strange politics, given the mirage a high-education degree displays even for the most WASPish. I agree with nothing about Clarence Thomas' positions, but I FULLY UNDERSTAND why he disparages his Yale Law School Diploma:
"I peeled a fifteen-cent sticker off a package of cigars and stuck it on the frame of my law degree to remind myself of the mistake I’d made by going to Yale. I never did change my mind about its value," wrote Thomas after no law firms would hire him.
I UNDERSTAND.
Just like I understand Dorner when he writes:
"I’m not an aspiring rapper, I’m not a gang member, I’m not a dope dealer, I don’t have multiple babies momma’s. I am an American by choice, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a military service member, I am a man who has lost complete faith in the system, when the system betrayed, slandered, and libeled me. I lived a good life and though not a religious man I always stuck to my own personal code of ethics, ethos and always stuck to my shoreline and true North. I didn’t need the US Navy to instill Honor, Courage, and Commitment in me but I thank them for re-enforcing it. It’s in my DNA."
What did Shakespeare's Othello say? "I have done the state some service, and they know ’t."
A Black man, like Dorner, coming out of a stint in the Navy may have gone into the Navy for any number of reasons, but I KNOW what he faced in the job market. LAPD might have been the only call he got, the only conceivable skill set he had.
I say this maybe somewhat prematurely, because I BELIEVE his testimony. He is not a Go Along to Get Along StepNFetchIt, which is probably why he is not still in the Navy, and why he got into trouble BEFORE he was even PURGED from the LAPD.
So before people question the authenticity of Dorner's Manifesto, take a breath and count 100 Black men.
