Essay: Racism in America
Robert A. Hall
The election in 2008 of a bi-racial president who self
identified as black, and who was seen as black across the political spectrum
from professional race mongers to white supremacists, held the golden promise
of a post-racial America .
The highest color barrier was broken. I was bemoaning what I feared would be
Obama's destructive collectivist policies to a friend, a brilliant surgeon of
centrist political leaning. He responded that there was a great upside--a black
president could say things to the black community that a white one would be
excoriated for, moving that part of lower-class black culture beyond the social
pathologies and sense of victimhood that hurts blacks economically and socially
to integration with mainstream cultural values that would advance blacks as
other ethnic groups have advanced. (I paraphrase the conversation.)
Alas, the promise has proved to be a chimera. Beset by Republican
and conservative attacks on his leadership, foreign policy, economic policy,
healthcare policy, energy policy, broken promises and his policy of growing
government, it has proved far more effective for Obama, fellow Democrats and
their media and academic allies to defend the administration by charging that
all opposition is based on racism, rather than policy disagreements. The need
to mobilize the base has produced a situation where political discourse is
infected by race issues more than ever before. Rather than a post-racial
society, the election of Barack Obama has created a hyper-racial society. His
supporters say this is because of the racist attacks. Opponents, stung, react
furiously, often over-reacting to their detriment. Attorney General Holder
claims with a straight face that no president and no attorney general have been
so badly treated, implying it is because of race, despite a simple Google search
turning up numerous leftwing pictures of President Bush as a monkey, calling for
him to be murdered, and equal or worse slanders of GOP Attorneys General. (http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621)
But it is also true that, while the vast majority of
criticism of the Obama administration I read is policy based, there is still a virulent
streak of racism in some of the opposition to and dislike of Obama. People who
read my blog assume that I will appreciate them and send me racist jokes and
cartoons about him, or make snide references to, "That lawn-jockey in the
White House." "I'm not racist--I hate his white half too," goes
around frequently. They are not only morally repugnant, but stupid, as they
provide ammunition to his defenders who wish to picture all opposition to
Obama's policies as racist.
Blacks are mobilized by convincing them that Obama, and they
are being held back only by racism. Environmentalists are mobilized by anti-job
green programs. Political contributors like Solyndra's investors by government
payouts. Government unions by generous benefits. The poor by Obama-phones and
Obamacare. Teachers by killing the right of poor black parents to send their
kids to charter schools or other good schools through vouchers. But worse is
the culture of deliberate victimization created in black people, who are taught
that only big government can help them. In my view, nothing is more destructive
of black futures than creating the disincentive to do anything on their own.
And as Obama's poll numbers have fallen, the charges get increasingly shrill,
with every policy criticism being discovered to be a hither-to-unknown racial
code word, along with the claim that an America where more white people
voted for Obama in 2008, than voted for Kerry in 2004 or Gore in 2000, is a
hopelessly racist society.
Thug is now a racist code word. I always thought of the Klan,
the skinheads and the Aryan Nation as thugs, and I'm not aware they have strong
diversity programs.
Race is no longer an issue, a concern or a problem. Stripped
of spin by both sides, it is now just one more tool politicians of every stripe
use to fustigate the opposition in the pursuit of power. I'm sorry to say that,
in my view, the NAACP is no longer a civil rights group, just another Democrat
Party special interest group like teachers, trial lawyers or government union
employees, supporting the party line in hopes of largess regardless of the
impact on blacks, just as Republican special interest groups support the GOP in
hopes of a payoff. (Some, of course, support both sides!) I hate that they have
made me feel this way, because, as Thomas Sowell points out, the NAACP has done
great service for black Americans in the past. (Ethnic America North Carolina
to protest photo IDs for voting, because blacks can’t get photo IDs. . (See "NAACP
requires marchers protesting North
Carolina voter ID law To Show Photo ID")
Republicans also have special interest groups as part of the base, organized
for the same reason--obtaining power to obtain favors. We all belong to several
such groups. I'm a senior, veteran, home owner, etc.
We are often told that we need to have "a conversation
about race." Increasingly, these "conversations" consist of
liberals shouting "racist" at any conservative who dares to criticize
Obama, and conservatives shouting infectively back, "Am not! Some of my
best friends..." Race is not something to discuss, but to beat down the
opposition with. It is hard to find people, especially across the color line,
with whom there is enough trust and good feelings to allow you to openly and
dispassionately discuss race. Except, of course, when the other folks are
already known to share your views on these issues. Then it's an echo chamber,
not a conversation.
This made a recent conversation on race I had with two black
friends both remarkable and memorable.
Going through the lung transplant process at the Madison VA,
we became close to a black couple, John and Donna Payne. John is a brother
Marine who saw a lot more action in Vietnam than I wanted to see. They
are from Louisiana , so were stuck in a hotel
here in Madison
without a car. We started taking them shopping, out to eat and for drives. I
would have wanted to help a fellow Marine in any case, but we quickly came to
like and know them, then, it's not too strong to say, to love them as family.
They are different folks from us, but very bright, good conversationalists, well
spoken, hard working, and very good people who are right with God. There's not
a lie in either one and I think they'd starve before they'd steal, I would
trust them with anything.
John once told me, "Bob, if you don't forget, you can't
forgive."
I said, "I know John, but there is a lot I have trouble
letting go of."
"'Well, Bob, you're not hurting them, only
yourself." I replied I was going to ask God to make me as good a person as
he was--but maybe not yet!
John was drafted in the Marine Corps, put in the infantry,
lost a lot of "the best platoon anyone could ask for" and mourns
those fallen brothers, black and white, every day. He has the Purple Heart and
scars to prove he was there. And he's still a patriotic American, despite the
war and the racism he dealt with growing up in the South in that era.
"Bob, there's a lot wrong with America ," he said. "But
if you don't like it here, if it's not working for you, why wouldn't you go
somewhere else to live?" There were a lot of racial incidents in the
service in the 1960s, but John confirmed what other combat vets say; the
animosity and occasional violence were in the rear areas, often out of Vietnam on Okinawa
or in the states. Out on the lines, there were only your brothers, regardless
of color, and the bad guys trying to kill you every day.
John likes big bands, John Wayne movies and cowboy novels;
not much to feed a stereotype there. And if I had candid photos of Donna's face
when he was singing country songs on Karaoke Night, I could market them for
home decorations at a good price.
His new lung came through five days before mine and he’s
doing very well, so much so that they returned to Louisiana , alas to rebuild their home which
burned a few days before they left. But at least they were not in the fire, and
no one was hurt. We miss them and talk frequently.
A week or so after my lung transplant, Donna came to visit
me in the hospital while John was impressing them in physical therapy with Marine
determination. In the course of the conversation, I asked her about racism when
she grew up in the South. Having the comfort level to discuss race with her and
John was a gift. She told me that a cross was burned on her lawn when she was
five. I know worse things happen ever day, but this happened to a person I care
about, when she was a child. It made me tear up--but then, a lot of things did then
with the drugs I was on.
Klan thugs used to sit in a car at the end of her street to
monitor the white people consorting with blacks, who needed reminding of the
way things were, and to see what was going on. Nails were thrown in the
driveway to give them flat tires.
She had a white great grandfather, whose genes show up. One
family-born cousin has blue eyes and blond hair. Needless to say, this does not
mollify the racists.
."Bob," she said. "You have to understand.
This was just the way it was for us. I hold no animosity."
"That's okay," I said. "I'll hold it for both
of us."
She said she had lived in Chicago for five years, and preferred to live
in the South. "You know who the racists are there, because they tell you.
In Chicago ,
they're sneaky."
"Well, I lived in Chicago
for five years too. That's not the only thing they are sneaky about!"
Like my wife, through ambition, self-education, ability and
hard work, Donna held very responsible positions without the opportunity to
earn a college degree. She retired as a CNA and CNA Supervisor, where she
worked in a mental hospital. Her best story was about one of the patients, an
old southerner who had slipped off the rails. His racism had intersected with
his mental disability, and vile slime spewed from him. "I used to kill
niggers like you," he told her. "And for all I know, he did,"
she said. Donna was the only staff member willing to work with him.
Finally she said to him, “You know the difference between
you and me? I’ve got the keys. (Cue dangling keys.) I get to go home at night,
while you have to stay here. And you will until your attitude changes.” And his
attitude slowly changed. “By the time he left, we were the best of friends,”
she said. She found a way to calmly influence him in a way that helped him and,
one hopes, everyone he came into contact with. She’s a no-nonsense person, but
she’s other-centered, cares about people, forgives the unforgivable, has
courage and good judgment, and has great communication skills. This gives her
lots of influence. Both John and Donna have influenced me to want to be more
like them, because of the example they set.
We continued the conversation when John joined us another
day. He talked about the Marine Corps and racism, as I said above. His best
friend at home is white, so he is used to having relationships across the color
line. He had to drop out of college to work after he married for the first time.
Before he retired, he built a good career in the
skilled trades, running a skiving machine. (Yeah, I didn't know what it was
either. Wikipedia says, "The process is used instead of rolling the material to shape when the
material must not be work hardened, or must not shed minute slivers
of metal later which is common in cold rolling processes."
I'm not good with hand work, poor fine motor skills, so I could not have
competed with him. I ranked high in my electronics school class, but was
probably the worst tech in the bunch when it came to actually fixing the
radios.) One can't help wondering, with their intellect, what a racially-level
playing field would have done for their lives.
The conversation with Donna and John focused my thoughts on
the problem of race in our society. With a BA in Government/Political Science
(shouldn't it be a BS?) and a masters in history, I still do a lot of reading
in economics, politics and history. Naturally the problem of race is entwined
in all three areas.
But I began to think more deeply and read more widely,
trying to get beyond the shouting points of the polarized political divide.
When I decided it would help me focus by getting my thoughts in this essay, I
began to compile the "For Further Reading" list of books and articles
at the end of this essay. Unless noted, I have read all of them, and recommend
them--which should not be taken to mean I agree with everything in them. In
fact, many conflict on points, but the points are worth considering. Many of
them are from my recent reading, but they go back as far as 8th grade for me.
When I am drawing on one of them for a statement in this essay, I will put it
thus: (Book Title or "Article
Title").
I did not write this essay to convince you my views were
correct, but to provide you with tools to think more deeply about these issues.
You will note that the nationally prominent black
economists, Thomas Sowell, PhD and Walter Williams, PhD, feature heavily on
this list, because their writing over the years has greatly influenced my
thinking. I find their research impeccable, their opinions cogent and nuanced,
and their thinking deeper than the polemics of either side.
Both men grew up poor, in the Jim Crow era, before
affirmative action. Both overcame poverty and racism to work their way to
doctorates in economics and became respected academics and well-published
authors. (Despite a grounding in the subject, I learned more from Sowell's Basic Economics, which has been
translated as a college text into six languages, than any other book I have ever
read.) Both have devoted considerable research and effort to understanding the
intersection of race and discrimination with economics, culture and politics. (Race and Culture and Race and Economics.) Their inspiring
autobiographies are on the list. (Up From
the Projects and A Personal Odyssey.)
I, too am a minority. I belong to two minority groups:
Americans whose ancestors came from Britain , only 15% of the population
in 1981, probably smaller now. (Ethnic America ) and Germany (13%). And my grandmother
claimed that granddad was one-quarter Cree, making me, if true, twice as native
American as Sen. Elizabeth Warren. (As with Warren , there exists zero verification of
grandmother's claim, perhaps because it was a family secret--race mixing wasn't
bragged about a century ago!)
Despite my (snort) "minority status," I am a
white, male, middleclass American. This makes me ineligible to talk about race
in some eyes--silencing dissent is a popular sport on both the left and right.
("We're going to have a conversation about race--you shut up and
listen!") It certainly means that Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans are
almost certain to have different, more intense views on the subject. In fact,
everyone has different life experiences and world views, meaning that everyone
sees these--like many issues--differently. I had a black friend and roommate at
U-Mass, Joe Fergusson, who was devastated when Muhammad Ali lost to Joe Frazier in 1971. Since
I couldn't care less about boxing, I asked him why. "Because Frazier is
white folks idea of a good nigger," he replied. The distinction had
escaped me. I had never thought of either one of them as being good or bad on
race issues. Different experiences produce different perspectives. Joe held no
racist animosities--but he had friends who didn't like me much and wondered why
he was rooming with a white guy.
As a small digression, we must consider if anti-Semitism and
Islamophobia are racist. My political answer is "Well, yes and no."
No, because anyone can convert to Judaism or to Islam, in the latter case,
simply by making the Declaration of Faith, "There is no god but Allah and
Mohammad is his (final) prophet." But while it is an odd race you can
voluntarily join, there is certainly a racist component and the affects of bias
pretty much fit my definition of racism, below, and thus are morally repugnant.
Certainly, being Jewish are a culture as well as a religion, and usually seen
as a distinct ethnic group. (Ethnic America
In fact, we talk about racism with no agreement as to what
it is. For the purpose of this essay, I define "racism" this way. "Racism" is
when someone holds a person in contempt or higher esteem, or considers another
person inferior or superior, or disparages or praises a person, or tries to
disadvantage or advantage another person based on that person's membership
in an ethnic group, rather than on the person's individual merit. Period,
as our president might say.
It is just as racist for me to assume that someone is a good
or smart person because of ethnicity as it is to assume the opposite, because it
assumes inferiority on the part of other ethnicities. (Though you get few
complains from those who benefit from that version of racism.)
Here's a little test to see what you think is racist (some
you will recognize). Read the following quotations and decide which speakers
are racists. All of them? Some of them? Or does it depend on who said it, not
what was said?
1. The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as
a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the
past generation in the United
States .
2. Now, let me talk about the Spanish people. You know I
understand that they come over here against our constitution and cross our
borders. But they’re here and they’re people – and I’ve worked side-by-side a
lot of them. Don’t tell me they don’t work, and don’t tell me they don’t pay
taxes. And don’t tell me they don’t have better family structure than most of
us white people. When you see those Mexican families, they’re together, they
picnic together, they’re spending their time together, and I’ll tell you in my
way of thinking they’re awful nice people. And we need to have those people
join us and be with us.
3. Today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation,
more than 50 years after the end of Separate But Equal, when it comes to
getting an education too many of our young people just can’t be bothered. Today
instead of walking miles every day to school they’re sitting on couches for
hours playing video games, watching TV instead of dreaming of being a teacher
or lawyer or business leader they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a
rapper.
4. I want to tell you one
more thing I know about the negro. When I go, went, go to Las Vegas, North Las
Vegas; and I would see these little government houses, and in front of that
government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids….
and there was always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch. They
didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for the kids to do. They
didn’t have nothing for the young girls to do. And because they were basically
on government subsidy – so now what do they do? They abort their young
children, they put their young men in jail, because they never, they never
learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered are they were better off as
slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things? Or are they
better off under government subsidy? You know they didn’t get more freedom, uh they
got less freedom – they got less family life, and their happiness -you could
see it in their faces- they were not happy sitting on that concrete sidewalk.
Down there they was probably growing their turnips – so that’s all government,
that’s not freedom.
5. I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is
standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two? (clapping)
Where were you when he was twelve? (clapping) Where were you when he was
eighteen, and how come you don't know he had a pistol? (clapping) And where is
his father, and why don't you know where he is? And why doesn't the father show
up to talk to this boy? ... 50 percent drop out rate, I'm telling you, and
people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men. Under
what excuse, I want somebody to love me, and as soon as you have it, you forget
to parent. ... Are you not paying attention, people with their hat on
backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn't that a sign of something, or are
you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up (laughter and clapping ). Isn't it a
sign of something when she's got her dress all the way up to the crack...and
got all kinds of needles and things going through her body. What part of Africa did this come from? ... Everybody knows it's
important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane
with “why you ain't...” You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out
of your mouth. ... These people are fighting hard to be ignorant. There's no
English being spoken, and they're walking and they're angry. Oh God, they're
angry and they have pistols and they shoot and they do stupid things. And after
they kill somebody, they don't have a plan. Just murder somebody. Boom. ...
Five or six different children, same woman, eight, ten different husbands or
whatever, pretty soon you're going to have to have DNA cards so you can tell
who you're making love to. ... What is it with young girls getting after
some girl who wants to still remain a virgin. Who are these sick black people
and where did they come from and why haven't they been parented to shut up? ...
6. What shall we do with the Negro? I have had but one
answer from the beginning. Do nothing ,,, Your doing ... has already played the
mischief ... If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength,
if they are worm eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to
fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any
way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall.
And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also.
7. I was in the WATTS
riot, I seen the beginning fire and I seen the last fire. What I seen is civil
disturbance. People are not happy, people is thinking they did not have their
freedom; they didn’t have these things, and they didn’t have them. We’ve
progressed quite a bit from that day until now, and sure don’t want to go back;
we sure don’t want the colored people to go back to that point; we sure don’t
want the Mexican people to go back to that point; and we can make a difference
right now by taking care of some of these bureaucracies, and do it in a
peaceful way.
8. We have got this tailspin of culture, in our
inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not
even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work There
is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with.
9. I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred
years.
10. If you are taught bitterness and anger, then you will
believe you are a victim. You will feel aggrieved and the twin brother of
aggrievment is entitlement. So now you think you are owed something and you
don't have to work for it and now you're on a really bad road to nowhere
because there are people who will play to that sense of victimhood,
aggreivement and entitlement, and you still won't have a job.
11. I ceased to advertise my mother's race at
the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was
ingratiating myself to whites.
12. ... it bothers me that the America I know and love I feel like
is being destroyed by a black man.
13. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to
provide for a better distribution of babies… and to protect society against the
propagation and increase of the unfit. ... Give dysgenic groups [people with
"bad genes"] in our population their choice of segregation or
[compulsory] sterilization. ... Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner
race.
14. Uncle Sam has developed a sophisticated poverty
plantation, operated by a federal government, overseen by bureaucrats,
protected by media elites, and financed by the taxpayers. The only difference
between this plantation and the slave plantation of the antebellum South is
perception.
!5. President Obama “does not even have the basic appearances of
a human being. . . . It would be perfect for Obama to live
with a group of monkeys in the world’s largest African natural zoo and lick the
bread crumbs thrown by spectators.”
The speakers: 1. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, liberal Democrat US Senator. 2. Cliven Bundy , Nevada Vanderbilt Law School
I'm not going to tell you which quotes I think are racist.
In fact, in some cases, I'd have to know a lot more about the speaker's views
to make up my mind. For many people, these statements will be racist or not
depending on who made them. It's not what was said, but by whom. The short
media sound-bites here are not enough to reveal it in many cases. I present it
to help you think about the gradations of racism and thought that can be so
described.
Below are more quotes from Blacks that might be considered
racist if made by Whites. Some reflect Rep. Paul Ryan, though they rightly
focus on both the pathologies in the black inner city community and in white
lower class America
as well. (Coming Apart.)
"I don't think it's about more gun control. I grew up
in the South with guns everywhere and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is
about people who aren't taught the value of life." --Samuel L. Jackson, Actor.
"So not only are women 'easier,' they have become
well-conditioned to take care of a guy; be the bread winner.... Now I’m not
getting after men who are stay at home fathers or those who have made the
decision to support their wife’s career. I’m talking about the Liberal guys who
connive to have a woman take care of them; they wear that like a badge of
honor.." --Kevin L Jackson, Blogger
"The government is not your salvation. The government
is not your road to prosperity. Hard work, education will take you far beyond
what any government program can ever promise." --Mia Love, Black Mayor and
GOP Congressional candidate. (More quotes from her:
It is, if course, more politically effective for liberals to
use the media to dismiss all policy criticism as coming from racist (if from
whites) or from Uncle Toms (if from blacks). Shouting "racist" or
"Uncle Tom" has immediate impact. Paul Ryan allowed himself to be
boxed in ("Paul Ryan Laments Inner-City Culture Of Not Working") by
using "inner city," which liberals pounced on as a "racial code
word," despite evidence that lower class whites have the same pathologies
in the city (See "Fishtown" in Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 ). Discussing policy results for real people
in depth takes nuance, time and reveals trade off of both positive and negative
results. It is hard to enflame the base with that. The conservatives, of
course, have their own shouting points to stir up support without going into
depth.
Though I grew up white and rather sheltered from race
issues, I have seen racism. For about eight of my 12 years of school, I was in
racially-mixed schools. But they were segregated as well, in that black and
white kids tended to hang together and have little to do with the other group.
In 6th grade, however, we had a teacher, Mr. Miller, who was a snide jerk. One
day he ripped into Eddie Bink, a nice, quite black kid who had not done his
homework. (Neither had I!). Eddie gave Mr. Miller the same excuse that the
teacher--a nasty piece of work who loved to trick us on tests--had just praised
a white "teacher's pet" kid for, lauding his honesty. I don't think I
knew the word racism then, but I knew that's what it was. I ran into Eddie that
summer at a local shopping center. Miller had failed him. I think that Eddie
was at least average bright, and with a family focused on education, and some
opportunity, would have been at least an average student. Miller missed a great
opportunity to be a mentor in favor of pettiness. Worse things have happened in
this world, but I felt bad for Eddie, and it stuck with me.
Also in 6th grade, two large black girls a few years older
took a hate to me, and whomped on me three or four times, once sticking a pin
in my leg. Uncomfortable, but no real harm done. Their lightening hit and run
raids would have made Guderian green with envy. As far as I know, I had never
exchanged a word or glance with them, and I assumed they were just beating on a
white kid. I suspect now they mistook me for some kid who had offended them.
The attacks stopped. Not everything can be explained by racism, though first
appearances may suggest it when you are the "victim."
Joining the Marines in 1964, at age 18, was my first real
experience of living with black people--and of overt racism in the south. When
I went home for Christmas leave that year, we had to change busses in Rocky Mount , NC
The waitress passed me by several times, not even noticing
my wave. Other patrons came in after me and were served. It took about five
minutes for the penny to drop. Every other person in the snack bar, waitresses,
cook and customers, was black. I was white. Quietly I picked up my bag and slid
out. On the other side of the bus station was a very large, very modern restaurant
with a larger menu--and white help and customers. I had my burger and fumed
inside that I was going to come back with some black Marines and bust up the
place. Of course, I never got to that backwater again.
One of the reasons I was so incensed was because of Sergeant
Owens, the first of three black men who were mentors in my life, and who had a
profound effect on me for the better.
The morning we arrived at Marine boot
camp Parris Island , we took some tests. Then
three hard-looking Marines in Smokey Bear hats came in, stared at us for a
minute, then began screaming, “Get Outside, GET OUTSIDE!”
While in high school, a classmate who
had a cousin in the Marines told me there was only one black DI on Parris Island , and he was the worst, toughest, SOB on the
island. And one of my DI’s was black. Ah, hell, I thought, just my luck.
It turned out to be a myth. Most
platoons had at least one black DI, I assume by design to avoid charges that
the many nasty things that happened were based on race. Actually, they treated
all of us equally as badly as possible. And Sergeant Ezekiel Owens, Jr., our
black DI, was the easiest-going of the three. We’d get him laughing at our
ineptitude and his tough-guy image would slip. Owens’ favorite name for
recruits was “Goony Bird,” which was almost a compliment compared to the other
things we were called. Thanks to the priceless gift of self-discipline that
Sgt. Owens, Sgt. Harris and Sgt. Martin gave me, I've had a very successful and
happy life, and I can never pay that debt. It is hard to believe that we only
spent three months with them. As I type, it was 50 years ago, and the many
incidents and lessons are clear in my mind. But I can't tell you what I had for
lunch today.
I suppose it is a stereotype, but the
black DIs usually had the best sing-song marching cadence, and once we learned
right foot from left, we loved to march with Owens calling the beat. Yes, Owens
thumped me a few times, entirely against regulations, and at risk to his career.
But not brutally and not unless I deserved it. Called into court, I would have
testified under oath in the face of video evidence and a hundred nuns
testifying to the contrary that it never happened.
A few years ago, I located Sgt. Owens through the
Internet.(Guys named "Ezekiel" are not thick on the ground.) He was a
retired Gunnery Sergeant and had a locksmith business outside Camp Lejeune
The second Black Marine who had a
profound influence on me was Staff Sergeant Russell. I regret I don't know his
first name--we were not equals.
After a year at Radio Relay tech
school, I was assigned to an artillery battery at Camp Lejeune Caribbean , but I
got out of that. I volunteered for Vietnam . The Colonel figured I was
nuts, but gave me corporal stripes as a going away present.
On Okinawa ,
they put me with a Radio Relay Platoon in a rear supporting unit, probably to
learn Radio Relay again. Unfortunately, it was, in my opinion, also a dumping
ground for poor NCOs. The Lieutenant was good,
but there were several layers of worthless NCOs between him and the troops.
That included the gunnery sergeant, the white staff sergeant, and one of the
sergeants. \The other sergeant was toxic as well as worthless, but a great
example. I have rarely had a personnel problem in my career that I didn't ask
myself, "What would Sergeant R. do in this case." Than at least I
know what not to do.
The best senior NCO in the outfit was Staff Sergeant
Russell, a black Marine. Unfortunately, the other senior NCOs were racist as
well. There was discord in the outfit over the troops having mustaches. (I had
one, with the Lieutenant’s permission,
though when he left, Sgt. R ordered me to shave it.) It was remarked that SSgt
Russell had a mustache. The Gunny said, “That’s okay, it makes him look almost
human.” This in front of the troops. Being a corporal, I had to keep my trap shut,
but I fumed. They marginalized the only good NCO.
I was on light duty one time, due to
being hit by a jeep trailer that left a lump on my leg larger than a goose egg.
That meant I missed the Physical Readiness Test (PRT) for the outfit, avoiding
lots of unpleasant exercise.
Of course, the senior NCOs accused me
of malingering. The week after I got off light duty, our new officer,
Lieutenant Smith, another mustang officer up from the ranks, decided we were
going to do a 21-mile hike, over the center of the island and up the coast.
With rifle, helmets, cartridge belt, and so on.
This wouldn’t have been a big deal
for an infantry outfit, but our guys weren’t in shape for it.
We did it in seven and a half hours,
plus an hour break for lunch. Not bad for a comm outfit used to riding in Radio
Relay vans. Lieutenant Smith walked the whole way. Staff Sergeant Russell
walked the whole way. I was the next senior man to walk the whole way. The
Gunny, the other Staff Sergeant, and the Sergeants all took turns riding in the
radio jeep or the ambulance. So did some of the corporals, half of whom were
equally worthless—not surprisingly the ones who rode were the ones favored by
the higher NCOs. One of the basic principles of leadership is the leader sets
the example. So you know what kind of leaders they were.
When we had six miles left to go, over the center of the
island, the Navy Corpsman ordered me into the ambulance to ride the rest of the
way, to protect my just-recovered leg. I refused. He told me if I injured my
leg, I’d be court marshaled. I told him I was walking in with the guys.
Luckily, I had no damage other than the blisters we all had.
SSgt Russell came over and whispered,
“Good man, Corporal Hall.” It remains one of the best compliments of my life. He
didn't care if I was white, black or green. I was a Marine, he was my leader,
and his job was to motivate and encourage me. I have never forgotten him,
though I'm sure he has no idea of the impact he made in the months I benefited
from his example.
The Marines taught me it wasn't about
race, it was about individuals. I had black friends I loved and admired and
there were black Marines I couldn't stand. And, yes, some of the latter were
racists, in my book, with a hostile attitude towards whites. Some folks feel
black racism should be excused because of white racism. But they are no more
justified in hating me because of the actions of other white people, some long
dead, than I would be in hating Dr. Thomas Sowell or Dr. Walter Williams
because black gang-bangers in Chicago murder children in drive by shootings.
The third black mentor who shaped my
life was US Senator Edward Brooke (R--MA), the first black elected to the US senate
in modern times--and in a VERY Democrat state with a black population of just 5%.
Brooke was a liberal Republican, but when I ran for the state senate in 1972,
he was the only prominent Republican who acted like he thought I had a chance.
He not only helped my campaign, and endorsed me, but sent a team of workers to
help with my recount. Without their help, I would not have squeaked through. He
was an example and advisor to me.
Unfortunately, the more conservative
elements of the GOP didn't stand by him, as he did other Republicans, a few
years later, when liberal Democrats had no "racism" problem using smears
to savage a black Republican, to
replace him with a Democrat. (Power motivates politicians on both sides. Race
and other issues are tools to get power, not problems to solve or principles to
stand by.) After he was defeated, he was cleared of the charges (Bridging the Divide), but it was hardly
front page news, and too late for his political career. I treasurer his
friendship, though we disagree on many issues.
Citing these three men does not mean
that many other black people have not had a positive influence in my life, from
black Marines to black doctors in the associations I managed, to John and Donna
Payne since last October, just as black writers from Booker Washington to
Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have. Nor does it mean that black folks have
had more impact in my life than the far larger number of whites I have
interacted with, for good or ill. But Owens, Russell and Brooke loom large in
the forces that shaped me, and I'm grateful to have had their guidance. I would
be a different person and have had a poorer life without them.
And because of them and others, I
learned to see people as individuals, not as members of an ethnic group.
Long ago, I concluded that Race doesn't
matter at all. Culture matters--which is why those desperate to keep
racism alive as a tool to get power have started to define "culture"
as a racist code word. So if you think that the culture of rural, mostly-white Wisconsin is better (or
worse) than the culture of increasingly-white and Asian San Francisco as green
initiatives have made housing unaffordable for blacks ("Liberalism versus
Blacks"), you must be a racist.
The idea
that a particular ethnic group isn't as intelligent as yours is an inbred
racism that is hard to eradicate. Almost all groups are targets at some times.
Business with "No Irish need apply" signs hired freed slaves. They
were smarter, worked better and so on. It is well documented that blacks
today score below whites on IQ tests. Both sides argue theories that support
their preconceived views, liberals that this is due to racism, racists that it
is due to innate intelligent differences between the races. Actually study of
the problem is not politically-correct, thus off limits to all but the bravest
of scholars. ("Race and IQ, Parts I, II & III") But black orphans
raised by white families score at or above the national IQ average. (Ethnic America Britain , poor
black kids are doing better than poor white kids. (A
Challenge to Our Beliefs.") Are the black kids smarter as a group?
Are the white kids victims of black racism? Hardly.
Eastern European Jews arrived here as
the most destitute and illiterate of immigrant populations, and were shunned
and despised by even the German-ancestry Jews already established in America . Jewish
soldiers in WWI averaged some of the lowest scores on mental tests of any
numerous ethnic group. Yet within a decade, they had IQ scores above Americans
in general. Jews were subject to heavy discrimination. Yet today they score
above the national average on IQ tests, are over-represented in the
professions, academia and among Nobel Prize winners, and are economically far
better off as a group than other Americans. But Sowell also notes that Jews, so
successful in urban life, business and the professions, were pretty much flops
as farmers. When it comes to economic advancement, he notes that "Cultures
are not 'superior' or 'inferior.' They are better or worse adapted to a
particular set of circumstances." (Ethnic
America
Japanese and Chinese immigrants on the west coast suffered violence and
discrimination that was often far worse than that suffered by blacks in the old
south. The Chinese in particular, arrived illiterate and impoverished. Most west coast Japanese
Americans lost everything when FRD forced them into resettlement camps at the
start of WWII, despite often being American citizens, a move supported by the
ACLU. Yet today, they are over-represented in the professions and academia, and
economically better off than the average American. (Ethnic America
Neither group is today considered a
disadvantaged minority needing government care and intervention. Both groups
had a huge advantage--a culture that was focused on education, family and a
solid work ethic. If we could somehow transpose those cultural elements to other
ethnic groups, including native-born white Americans, I think in a generation
poverty would be a non-issue.
Thomas Sowell postulates that the
pathologies of the inner-city black culture (touchy about honor or being
"dissed," a work-only-if-necessary-to-get-by work ethic, violence,
alcoholism [now drugs], promiscuity and a tendency to violence) is actually the
culture of poor southern whites that the freed slaves picked up from them, then
brought north to the cities where this transplanted "cracker culture,"
is defended as authentic "black culture." (Black Rednecks and White Liberals). I don't know. He draws on a lot
of examples, but there is, of course, little hard data. Read his essay and make
up your own mind. But certainly these pathologies are not present in the
majority of hard-working, decent folks in the black working class, or the black
middle class who have acculturated and share general American values. One of
the tradeoffs for ending the injustice of segregation was the ability of black
professionals and middle class--the folks who wore suits to church on
Sunday--to move out of black neighborhoods. This was to their advantage, but
left the poor black kids with no role models except drug dealers and gang
bangers, to their hurt.
The leaders of black America have
been disproportionately drawn from two groups or their descendants. One group
was the "free persons of color," that is blacks who were free before
the Civil War. The great black leader W.E.B. Dubois was born in Massachusetts to a free
black family. This is sometimes attributed, by blacks and whites, to the fact
that a high proportion of them were "mulattos," bi-racial people with
both a white and black parent. They assumed, as did whites and other blacks,
that their white ancestry made them smarter and superior to run-of-the-mill
blacks. The majority of the 3,000 black slave owners in New Orleans in 1860 were Mulattos who
considered themselves superior to their "property." ("Black
Slave Owners ") That inter- and intra-ethnic group racism is of course now
known to be false, however "clean and articulate" Joe Biden thinks
the President may be. In act, they had a head start on the freed slaves. They
were far more acculturated to free society, far more educated and far more
skilled in life and work than the freemen. Naturally, their families have
prospered in relation to those of freed slaves. (Ethnic America
The other group are American blacks
from the West Indies . Though they are
descended from slaves and racially very similar to descendents of American
slaves, their culture is very different. Given they are a small elite group
leading the black masses, folks like Shirley Chisholm don't advertise their West
Indian Heritage. (Ethnic America
I have long maintained I'd rather
have a beer with a black Marine veteran, than with any number of white Harvard
academics, Hollywood celebrities or European
socialists. Marines are my culture, my "tribe" if you will, the
others not at all.
I have also concluded that
individuals and character matter, not groups. "Character, not
circumstances, makes the man." --Booker T. Washington. Ethnic groups have
different characteristics, usually based on culture, not ethnicity, though it
would be hard to argue that blacks are not more athletic than whites, If that
were not true, whites could sue the NBA, NFL, ABL and NBL for racial
discrimination under the disparate impact theory.
But it doesn't matter. If you have an
Asian guy who can play better basketball than Michael Jordan, he deserves to
play. But every team should not be required to have enough whites, Hispanic,
Jews and Asians to match their proportion of the general population out of
concern for diversity. That would constitute racial discrimination against the
better black players at the alter of diversity, just as it constitutes racial
discrimination to pass over better qualified Asian and white students with
"race sensitive admission policies" in homage to
"diversity."
So, having come this far, we need to
ask, "Who is a racist?" Alas, like beauty, pornography and racism
itself, it's in the eye of the beholder.
There is a theory that all whites are
racists (except the thinkers and their progressive co-believers) and that only
whites can be racist, because they hold the power. I suggest any whites who
believe this, in the face of limitless historical evidence, check their
"white privilege" by taking a stroll through a south Chicago poor black neighborhood at 11:00 pm
in July. Doubtless their "power" will protect them from any racist
attacks. Though to be fair, they would be in little more danger than local
black teens walking the same streets.
A while back, a well-educated liberal friend of great accomplishment
I'd sent something to read by Dr. Thomas Sowell, disagreed with it and
described Sowell, who is black, as an "asshole." Sowell has a PhD in
the history of economic thought, has taught at several major universities, and
has several dozen books on economics, race, culture and politics in print. His Basic Economic has been translated into
six languages and is widely used as a college textbook. A pretty accomplished
"asshole." But let a conservative disagree with any policy of
President Obama, even absent profane name calling, and you are a racist. The
left's double standard is so broad and breathtaking they don't notice it.
The long body of evidence is that
there is unlikely to be a person alive over the age of ten who is free of
racial, ethnic or religious animosity. It's not in our DNA, but inculcated with
our mothers' milk.
We are all products of our times and
cultures. Henry Mayer (All on Fire) says that
today Americans "are all abolitionists." (I think there are
exceptions!) It's hard to remember that the before the Civil War, the majority
of northerners may have despised slavery, but saw no alternative, fearing the
impacts of millions of freed uneducated slaves on the society. I'm a staunch
union man. My great, great grandfather, Sgt. Oliver Vernal, fought through the
Civil War with the 6th Connecticut Volunteer infantry (which went into Fort Wagner
next to the 54th Massachusetts ,
but didn't make it into the movie Glory.)
He was badly wounded twice. Had he died, I'd have lost my life as well, putting
down the slave power.
But had you
or I been born on a southern plantation to a white planter family in, say,
1840, we would have been very likely to have been rabid defenders of the
south's "peculiar institution" and rallied to the Bonnie Blue Flag in
1861. Sgt. Vernal wouldn't much like the thought of me in Rebel Gray, serving
under Lee or Longstreet.
Certainly
white racism was a necessary component of slavery. Its hard to sleep at night
if you can't convince yourself that holding these "inferior people"
in slavery was better for them. Certainly, white racism was a feature of
colonialism, not that the societies they took over had any claim to moral
superiority as we understand it in the 21st century. They were often busy
subjugating and enslaving their neighbors when the colonial powers arrived. Given
how bad these things were, would the Third World be better today if western
powers had stayed home, and built not one school, road or hospital there? Would
America
be a better place today absent the stain of slavery, if not one African slave
had been brought to these shores? The slaves themselves would have been likely
to be sold by their fellow Africans to Arabs instead, where the harsher
conditions meant there is no black population today (except some mixed blood in
the population from rape in the harem), so their descendants would not be
around today at all.
Few
cultures are as racist as Asian cultures. The Chinese and Japanese consider
each other, white people and pretty much everyone else racially inferior
barbarians. The rivers of blood they have spilled over this conceit dwarf by
several orders of magnitude any racial violence directed against blacks, native
Americans, Asians, Hispanics and in some cases whites in North
America . Given Asian tensions in current news stories, they may
not be done.
Russians, who saw no downside to encouraging their Communists
Chinese and Koreans allies to fight Americans during the Korean War, called the
Asian soldiers "Lemonski," which the excellent history Small Wars, Faraway Places translates as
"yellow-skinned cannon fodder."
And the
"Overseas Chinese" in many Asian countries consider themselves
racially superior to the locals, who return the animosity in spades, and often
in violence. Then there are the million people who died in ethnic violence when
India and Pakistan were partitioned after Britain granted
independence. One wonders if any of the dead would have preferred the racism of
British colonialism to ethnic murder.
You and I
might not be able to discern at a glance the ethnic difference between Tutsis
and Hutus in Rwanda ,
but the Hutus could well enough to have slaughtered upwards of a million Tutsis
and moderate Hutus in a genocide the world only bemoaned after the fact.
I could
belabor the point for another thousand words, but I suggest you read Race and Culture: A World View as a
start.
Casual, unthinking racism infects Americans of all political
persuasions as much as anyone else. ("25
Examples of Liberal Racism in Quotes." and "9 Racist Things
that Big Democrats Have Said and the Media Has Forgotten") Many white
males of the working class are perfectly unselfconscious using terms like
"nigger" and "nigger-rigged" with other whites, assuming we
will not be offended. Recently a PR exec sent a racist tweet about AIDS, Africa and being white. ("IAC PR exec fired over
offensive AIDS tweet"). She was unemployed when her plane landed. She was
in Public Relations--she should have
been fired for stupidity before they even got to the racism.
I have a friend, a woman of
intellect and class. In the 40 plus years I've known her, I never heard her
utter a racist remark--except once. Years ago, her elderly mother was robbed
and savagely beaten by three young black males on the street in Worcester , MA
People who are wronged, hurt and
outraged often lash out in bitter, nasty ways at the perpetrator, though that
individual isn't there to hear. If an obese person cheats you, you might refer
to him as, "That fat prick," though holding an animus towards the
overweight takes in a lot of folks in our society today---a fact Chris Christy
exploited when Jon Corzine made the mistake of referencing Christy's weight.
If the wrongdoer is of Italian
or Irish heritage, you are likely to hear ethnic slurs like "Whop" or
"Mick" from the victim, though he has no real bias towards the whole
ethnic group.
Another friend, a Marine buddy,
is a tough, raw-spoken man who calls a spade a "Goddamn Shovel." He
is likely to drop the N word into conversation with white males, without a second
thought. Is he a racist? He has also built a very successful auto body
business, where he hires black felons right out of prison to sweep the floor or
wash cars. He gives them overtime and health benefits so they can make a
living. They get to develop work skills, a work history, and perhaps learn and
move into a better paying position. He doesn't let anyone use the N word in his
shop.
Visiting his business, I met a
young black employee who had been in jail and was a registered sex offender.
When he was 18, some busybody saw him petting
with his younger girlfriend, and had him charged with molesting a child. (There
but for the grace of God...) I wondered if a white kid would not have walked in
the same situation.
The guy was getting grief from
the parole board. My buddy told him, "Look. You have six months to do. Go
back to jail, and I'll hold your job for you." He went to jail and had a
job when he was released. My buddy is now working with the guy to set up a
chance to have the record expunged. So this "racist" has helped more
down and out black guys than ten Ivy league professors speak to in a year.
Some cases
are easy. Not being a basketball guy, I had never heard of Donald
Sterling until his recent taped comments made him front page news. For all I
know he rescues kittens, but reading of his past conduct and current life
style, it's hard not to conclude he's an unrepentant racist and vile in many
other ways; a rich jerk who has let his sense of entitlement go to his head.
I don't get conservatives saying,
"He's bad, but what about..." No excuses. I had zero objection to the
NBA's fine or the lifetime suspension of him. But a couple of notes. First, he
was suspended for life, while athletes who have committed crimes, fathered
children they don't parent, or engaged in domestic or other violence are still
happily earning millions playing. I'm not sure if this is because racism is now
considered worse than these crimes, or because suspending good players has an
economic cost to the league that suspending an owner doesn't.
The second point is that, despite his
clearly racist views, he has long employed black players, a black coach and a
black general manager. (Not to mention employing a bi-racial mistress.) As Dr.
Thomas Sowell has pointed out, discrimination often gives way to economic
self-interest, but surfaces when it is cost free. Before the racist white
unions pushed through minimum wage laws to disadvantage blacks who were under
bidding them, blacks had a higher employment rate than white, because discriminating
against them carried an economic cost. Once they couldn't compete on price,
discrimination was cost free, and blacks have had a lower employment rate ever
since. (Race and Economics)
The case on Cliven Bundy is harder to judge, because he became
a focal flash point in the political divide, with excessive spin from both
sides. ("Cliven Bundy Under Fire for ‘Negro’ Comments, Wondering Whether
Blacks Would Be ‘Better Off as Slaves, Picking Cotton,’" "Unedited Video
Shows Bundy Making Pro-Black, Pro-Mexican Comments" and "CNN
Talks To Black Bundy Bodyguard: ‘He Is Not A Racist. He’s Pretty Much Treating
Me Just Like His Own Family’") Despite the fact that everybody admitted
that Bundy was legally in the wrong, small government conservatives rallied to
his defense before his comments came to light., especially because there was a
whiff of green-crony profits and well-connected lobbyists wanting the land. Big
government types came down hard on him and rejoiced when Bundy's comments
discredited him and his supporters.
Then it turned out that the NY Times, to no conservative's surprise, had edited out some things
he said that were pro-black and especially pro-Hispanic. His black bodyguard
says he's not a racist. He may, of course, indeed be a racist. Or a confused,
inarticulate old guy who has some politically-incorrect terms imbedded in his
vocabulary. I think the jury's out--but we will never know for sure, as the big
guns (big mouths?) on both sides have a self-interest in making Bundy fit their
narrative.
Despite the ethnic biases embedded in our psyches, I don't
think everyone is racist. Most people recognize it as wrong, and try to overcome
it, letting the "better angles" of their nature guide them.
My definition: A racist is a person who embraces racism, sees nothing
wrong with it, and often happily engages in the behavior I define as racist
above. Yes, anyone can be a racist. David Duke and Al Sharpton both fit
the bill. Jesse Jackson's racial blackmail of Budweiser to give his son, Jesse
Jackson, Jr. (D-Prison) a lucrative beer distributorship may not be racist,
just old fashioned extortion using race as the bludgeon
Is Affirmative Action racist? It fits my above definition.
("Beyond affirmative action to colorblindness."). And as Thomas
Sowell points out, it disadvantages black students, who are pushed into schools
where they cannot compete, but who would do well in lower ranked schools. ("Liberalism
versus Blacks ") The end results for black students don't matter, of
course, as long as the academics can feel good about achieving diversity.
There was a time—in my life time—when people saw black
professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants) and thought they must be very
good to have over-come racism and other obstacles like poverty and poor
schools. Now too many people wonder if they achieved their success from the
liberal view that blacks cannot compete with Whites or Asian (who certainly
suffered equally bad discrimination), and must be given lower college admission
standards, grade standards, hiring standards, and promotion standards to
achieve diversity, to overcome past racism or the effects of slavery, or, in my
view, to buy votes from a large black population they have instilled with the victim,
we-can’t-compete mentality that would have outraged earlier generations of
blacks with higher employment rates than whites. As one group of former slaves
petitioned the Freedman’s Bureau, “We are a working class of people.”
Successful professionals like Thomas Sowell, PhD and Walter Williams, PhD, who
became national prominent economists without affirmative action, are incensed,
as they reject this condescending (and in my view, racist) view of black people
.
From Paul Ryan to Bill Cosby (who earned instant "Uncle
Tom" status for having the courage to address the issue--see "Dr Bill
Cosby Speaks") much has been
made of the pathologies in the poor (inner city!) black community: violence,
the non-marital birth rate, lack of a work ethic in young males, drugs and
crime. But these pathologies are present throughout our culture today, not just
among blacks. (Coming Apart) They are
advanced among blacks because of higher poverty, less education and the
dependency culture that has been fobbed off on them by their "friends."
("'Friends' of blacks.") The damage
is magnified by those who scream "Racist" or "Uncle Tom" at
any attempt to address these issues.
While 70% of black babies are non-marital births, so are 50%
of Hispanic babies and 30% of white babies. This is devastating for those
groups, because the poverty correlation is so high. ("Ignoring
Single-Parent Families in the Inequality Debate," "To defeat poverty, look to marriage," "
Benefits of Marriage," and " Paternal Involvement Increases College
Graduation Rates.") Not honestly discussing this hurts blacks worst of
all. That's racist!
Is this a legacy of slavery? No. Despite the forced breakup
of families and higher mortality rates, most slaves lived in dual-headed
households and many had long-term marriages. Most slave children grew up in
two-parent families, far more than whites or blacks today. (The Black Family in Freedom and Slavery.) They
would be ashamed of us, black or white.
I keep reading that the Trayvon Martin case demonstrates
that it isn't safe for a black teen to be in a white neighborhood at night. But
there was little outcry when the case was black on white violence. ("What
if Trayvon Had Been White, and the Shooter Black?") And "stand your
ground" laws, such as the one sponsored by then-state senator Barack Obama
in
The facts are contrary to the narrative. Blacks murder
whites at twice the rate whites murder blacks. According to the FBI, blacks
make up 13% of the population, but commit 53% of the murders. (Yet it's racist
that blacks outnumber whites in prison?) But both white on black and black on
white murder are small problems. Just as the vast majority of Islamist murders
are of Muslims, the vast majority of black murders are of fellow blacks. It's
just that Al Sharpton gets no benefit for splashing them in the media. That
it's politically incorrect to discuss this genocide of black people is the
worst kind of racism.
What can we do about racism?
First we need to recognize that everyone, black, white,
yellow or brown, has ethnic biases imbedded in them. When it rears its ancient
head in us, we need to recognizes it as unworthy, and fight to rise above it.
Most of us do, but the internal battle will always be there.
Second, we need to realize that politicians screaming about
racism on both sides are not really concerned about racism. Their agenda is
getting power, and racism is just one more tool. The media has an agenda of
driving readers/viewers to increase revenue.
Third, we need to understand that there are people of good
will on all sides of this issue, however much they may be drowned out by the
whores, and we need to work with the good ones. There is no objective right or
wrong on much of this, only individual perspectives.
Fourth, we need to understand that these biases will always
be a part of every person, and deal with it. No one deserves to be
self-righteous on these issues. It's not "Check your privilege," but
"Check your humanity."
Lastly, we cannot be intimidated from trying to address the
real problems that people of all ethnic groups have by shrill, agenda-driven
folks trying to stop discussion with charges of racism.
Ethnic bias is a chronic disease of the human condition that
will never be fully cured. But it can be ameliorated by people of good heart to
make life better for everyone. All we can do is try.
*****
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam
veteran, a former five-term member of the Massachusetts State Senate and the
author of 11 books with the royalties going to charity.
Copyright © 2014 Robert A. Hall. Permission to forward,
post or publish this essay with credit to the author and without changes is
granted. I learned from my 2009 essay "I'm Tired," which ethics-free
idiots changed to reflect their own views, but forwarded over my name, meaning
I regularly get slammed for things I didn't say by other idiots who can't be
bothered to read the actual essay posted on my blog. They also often attributed
it to others like Bill Cosby of the actor Robert D. Hall. ~Bob
For Further Reading
I have tried to include books and
articles I have read that provide nuance and context into these issues beyond
the shallow talking (shouting) points of conservatives who think racism is no
longer an issue, and liberals who think any opposition to the policies of a
black liberal (but not a black conservative!) is racist and who see every
dictionary entry as a racial code word when used by someone who disagrees with
them. These are not necessarily in any order. I realize this is a long list,
but they are all worth reading, so you will have to skim and pick and choose.
You should read everything on the list with a critical eye. I have indicated
where comments are mine and not from the work. The books are linked to Amazon
so you can read the synopsis and the reviews, while the articles are linked (I
hope) to on-line versions. ~Bob
Books
Race and Culture: A World View. By Thomas Sowell
The challenges of race and culture that confront us are not
unique to America .
Again, Sowell’s excellent research and pertinent examples put these problems
into perspective. You will come away with a better understanding and new view
of these issues. ~Bob
Dr. Sowell looks at the history and integration in to
American life of several ethnic groups, such as Jews, Germans, Irish, Mexicans,
blacks, etc., as well as the intersection of the cultures they brought with
them and the cultures they developed in America . Published in 1981, much of
the data has been outdated by demographic and immigration changes, but his
insights into these issues are timeless. Pertinent to this essay is the chapter
on the history and development of black Americans under slavery and since. ~Bob
Black Rednecks and
White Liberals. By Thomas Sowell.
All of these essays, as usual with Dr. Sowell, are worth
reading. Pertinent to this discussion is the title essay, which postulates that
black, inner-city culture, is based on poor southern white "cracker
culture" (which was violent, touchy about honor or being
"dissed," had a poor work ethic and was promiscuous) which freed
slaves adopted from poor whites they were in contact with. Also, "The Real
History of Slavery" (You can listen to it being read here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao7FKReHYKY)
puts that issue into a world historical context. Americans tend to view slavery
as an American phenomenon over a few centuries, when every culture practiced
slavery and people of every race, religion and ethnic group were enslaved. Only
western culture turned against slavery. ~Bob
Race & Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed
on Discrimination? By Walter E. Williams
Dr. Williams a nationally known economist, provides
excellent research into these problems, and details how government programs
have discriminated economically against black citizens, usually at the behest
of special interest, such as labor unions that wanted to eliminate competition
from blacks for their white members. Worth reading. ~Bob
The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925. By Herbert G. Gutman
This well researched and extensively documented history,
published in 1976, presents a far more positive and uplifting view of black
people living under the evil of slavery than the current standard, and in my
view condescending and racist view of blacks, then and now, and that today's
pathologies in the black community are a result of slavery, which destroyed the
black family. Unfortunately, despite extensive, data-driven research, it has
failed to change the national understanding of slavery and blacks. ~Bob
Excerpt: Despite the subtitle, this is a book about class,
not race. The author is looking at a lot of data that suggested the upper class
that runs the country, which he calls the Narrow Elite and the Broad Elite, is
increasingly wealthy, increasingly takes in both liberals and conservatives
with high IQs and is increasingly isolated from the experience of the rest of
America. He focuses on whites because that Narrow Elite is overwhelmingly
white. He also focuses on the white
lower class, so the comparison will not be between a white upper class and a
minority lower class. He looks at a lot of data suggesting the white lower
class is being destroyed by several trends: decreasing industriousness and ability to hold jobs among males,
decreasing participation in civic organizations or churches, decreasing
marriage rates, decreasing rates of trust and neighborliness, and sharply
escalating non-marital birth rates, all trends that suggest the destruction of
both happiness for these folks and what he calls the "American Project."
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
This excellent novel is about a little-known facet of
American history: Southern free black slave owners before the Civil War and
emancipation. Black Slave Owners by
Joseph Holloway
According to this article, there were 3,000 free black slave
owners in New Orleans in 1860 and over 400 in Charleston , SC
A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell
Autobiography
Bridging the Divide: My Life by Edward W. Brooke
The autobiography of my mentor and friend, US Senator Edward
Brooke. ~Bob
Up from the Projects: An Autobiography by Walter E. Williams
Maybe I'll Pitch Forever. By Leroy Satchel Page
I'm not a sports guy, but I read Satchel's terrific
autobiography in college. He was perhaps the best pitcher ever, but due to
racial discrimination, but had to pitch in the Negro Leagues and didn't get
into the American League until he was 42--and still pitched for years. It's
another lesson on the loss to the nation of racial discrimination. Today Paige
would be making $10M a year. ~Bob
I have read good books this year that I can't remember the
titles of, but in 8th grade, I was working my way through my grandmother's
collection of Reader's Digest Condensed Books, and came across Washington 's
autobiography. It stuck with me and long influenced my views on race. Washington has fallen
out of favor with the grievance mongers, because he advocated self improvement
for the freed slaves like himself, over agitation for civil rights. He had a
long conflict with W. E. B. Du Bois over this, covered in Ethnic America,
above. Well worth reading. ~Bob
A wonderful biography of one of the leading American
abolitionists. Garrison, like Wilberforce in Britain , was the conscience of a
nation at a time when even many northerners who hated slavery thought that
abolishing it and putting uneducated blacks into the society would be bad for
everyone. He deserves to be remembered and honored. ~Bob
'White Girl Bleed A Lot': The Return of
Racial Violence to America
The author has been praised for having the courage to expose
the issue and excoriated as a racist for talking about black on white violence.
It's worth reading to make up your own mind. It is certainly true that the
media goes to great length not to mention the ethnicity of perpetrators of
crime and violence unless it is a case of white (or "white Hispanic")
on black violence. (In Europe , Muslims
screaming "Allah Akbar" a they riot, or commit violence or other
crime against non-Muslims are routinely described as "youth" or
"Asians," to avoid any mention of Islam.) Not every case of
inter-racial violence is based on racism, but many of these cases fit the
definition I offer in the essay. Let me repeat hear, that the vast majority of
black violence is directed at other black people, just as the vast majority of
people murdered by Muslims in the name of Allah are fellow Muslims who believe
slightly differently, or are not as committed as the murderers, or are not
cooperating with them. ~Bob
Movies
Note that these movies are all based on true stories. That
doesn't mean that Hollywood
has not taken liberties with the historical facts to "improve" the
stories--the have. Worth seeing, but view critically. ~Bob
Amazing Grace
A must-see movie about William Wilberforce and the effort in
Britain
to abolish the slave trade. ~Bob
The Blind Side
Great story about a white family who adopt a black teen who
becomes a football star. ~Bob
Schindler's List
The holocaust up close and personal. A must-see movie. ~Bob
Glory
The story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. a
black Civil War regiment whose valor helped black troops be accepted by the
Union armies. ~Bob
Articles and
Columns
Politics Versus Education. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Anyone who has still not yet understood the utter
cynicism of the Obama administration in general, and Attorney General Eric
Holder in particular, should look at the Justice Department's latest
interventions in education. If there is one thing that people all across the
ideological spectrum should be able to agree on, it is that better education is
desperately needed by black youngsters, especially in the ghettoes.
Demonizing the Helpers. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: It is not easy to demonize people who have spent
hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to help educate poor
children. But some members of the education establishment are taking a shot at
it. The Walton Family Foundation — created by the people who created Walmart —
has given more than $300 million to charter schools, voucher programs and other
educational enterprises concerned with the education of poor and minority
students across the country. The Walton Family Foundation gave more than $58
million to the KIPP schools, which have had spectacular success in raising the
test scores of children in ghettoes
The Left Versus Minorities. Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: If anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the
political left's avowed concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a
fraud, it would be now -- and the place would be New York City , where far left Mayor Bill de
Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding, among
other things. These schools have given thousands of low income minority
children their only shot at a decent education, which often means their only
shot at a decent life. Last year 82 percent of the students at a charter school
called Success Academy
Republicans and Blacks. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: The issue on which Democrats are most vulnerable,
and have the least room to maneuver, is school choice. Democrats are heavily in
hock to the teachers' unions, who see public schools as places to guarantee
jobs for teachers, regardless of what that means for the education of students.
There are some charter schools and private schools that have low-income
minority youngsters equaling or exceeding national norms, despite the many
ghetto public schools where most students are nowhere close to meeting those
norms. Because teachers' unions oppose charter schools, most Democrats oppose
them, including black Democrats up to and including President Barack Obama.
A Challenge to Our Beliefs. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: What do low-income whites in England and ghetto blacks in the United States
have in common? It cannot be simply low incomes, because children from other
groups in the same low-income brackets outperform whites in England and outperform blacks in America .
What low-income whites in England
and ghetto blacks in the United
States have in common is a generations-long
indoctrination in victimhood. The political left in both countries has, for
more than half a century, maintained a steady and loud drumbeat of claims that
the deck is stacked against those at the bottom.
Rosa Parks and history. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Why was there racially segregated seating on public
transportation in the first place? "Racism" some will say -- and
there was certainly plenty of racism in the South, going back for centuries.
But racially segregated seating on streetcars and buses in the South did not go
back for centuries. Far from existing from time immemorial, as many have
assumed, racially segregated seating in public transportation began in the
South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Those who see government as the solution to social
problems may be surprised to learn that it was government which created this
problem. Many, if not most, municipal transit systems were privately owned in
the 19th century and the private owners of these systems had no incentive to
segregate the races.
'Friends' of blacks. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Who was it who said, "if the Negro cannot
stand on his own legs, let him fall"?
Ronald Reagan? Newt Gingrich? Charles Murray? Not even
close. It was Frederick Douglass! This was part of a speech in which Douglass
also said: "Everybody has asked the question … 'What shall we do with the
Negro?' I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your
doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with
us!"
Frederick Douglass had achieved a deeper understanding in
the 19th century than any of the black "leaders" of today. Those
whites who feel a need to do something with blacks and for blacks have been
some of the most dangerous "friends" of blacks.
Liberalism versus
Blacks. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Liberals
have pushed affirmative action, supposedly for the benefit of blacks and other
minorities. But two recent factual studies show that affirmative action in
college admissions has led to black students with every qualification for
success being artificially turned into failures by being mismatched with
colleges for the sake of racial body count.
Will Dunbar Rise Again? By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: What is different about the history of Dunbar is that, from its founding in 1870 as the first
public high school in the country for black students, until the mid 1950s, it
was an outstanding academic success. As far back as 1899, when tests were given
in Washington 's
four academic high schools at that time, the black high school scored higher
than two of the three white high schools. That was the M Street School that was
renamed Dunbar High School
Recycled 'racism.' By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: For example, neither study took credit histories
into account. People with lower credit ratings tend to get turned down for
loans more often than people with higher credit ratings, or else they have to
go where loans have higher interest rates. This is not rocket science. It is
Economics 1. Blacks in the earlier study turned out to have poor credit
histories more often than whites. But the more recent news story did not even
look into that.
Rattling the chains. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Slavery was an ugly, dirty business but people of
virtually every race, color, and creed engaged in it on every inhabited
continent. And the people they enslaved were also of virtually every race,
color, and creed. A recently published book titled "Christian
Slaves, Muslim Masters" by Robert Davis shows that a million Europeans
were enslaved by North Africans between 1500 and 1800. Nor were they the only
Europeans enslaved.
Race and IQ. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: This is just one of many unsolved mysteries that is
likely to remain unsolved, because doing research on race and IQ has become
taboo in many places. ... In other words, black Americans' test score results
in 1995 would have given them an average IQ just over 100 in 1945. Only the
repeated renorming of IQ tests upward created the illusion that blacks had made
no progress, but were stuck at an IQ of 85. But we would never have known this
if some researchers had not defied the taboo on studying race and IQ imposed by
black "leaders" and white "friends."
Race and IQ: Part II. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Professor John McWhorter, a black faculty member at
the University of California at Berkeley ,
has made a suggestion that is explosive in itself and directly the opposite of
what is being said by those who are seeking to promote lower college admissions
standards for blacks through affirmative action. One of the reasons given for
wanting more black students on a given campus, even if that means lowering
admissions standards, is the claim that a certain number of blacks -- a
"critical mass" -- on campus is necessary, in order for these
students to feel comfortable enough to relax and do their best work. It sounds
plausible, but lots of things have sounded plausible. Professor McWhorter says
just the opposite in his book "Losing the Race." According to
McWhorter, anti-intellectualism in the black culture keeps many black
youngsters from doing their best.
Race and IQ: Part III. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Back in the days of the Roman Empire, Cicero warned his fellow
Romans not to buy British slaves, because he found them hard to teach anything.
A 10th-century Moslem scholar noted that Europeans grew more pale the farther
north they were and that the "farther they are to the north the more
stupid, gross, and brutish they are." With our love of labels today, we
might dismiss both these statements as "racism." In reality, both
statements were probably true, as of the time they were made. At the very
least, the people who said these things were eyewitnesses, which we cannot
possibly be.
Black History Month. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Obviously, there is current political mileage to be
gotten from historic grievances. At a minimum, politicians and activists get
the media attention that is the lifeblood of their careers. Then there are
racial quotas, money for special minority programs and hopes for reparations
for slavery. If nothing else, some people get excuses for their own shortcomings
-- and excuses are very important. One of the many penetrating insights of the
late Eric Hoffer was that, for many people, an excuse is better than an
achievement
Bravo for Bill Cosby. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: He also denounced both those children and those
adults in the black community who refuse to speak the king's English. "Everybody
knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads," Cosby
said. "You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your
mouth." He also mocked those who referred to "the incarcerated"
as "political prisoners."
Dr Bill Cosby Speaks
Quota 'logic.' By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: In short, older white males of Professor McPherson's
generation benefitted unfairly, so reparations are owed to minorities and women
-- not from those who benefitted, but from white males of this generation,
including those too young to have had anything to do with the advantages and
disadvantages he describes. And we thought The Shadow could cloud men's minds! This
is classic academic self-indulgence in the name of noblesse oblige. Professor
McPherson can get credit for noblesse and force someone else to pay the cost of
oblige.
Quota 'logic' part II. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: First of all, he mentions that his academic career
began in 1962 at Princeton , as a result of
what he now calls "the infamous 'old boy network,' " which he
characterizes as affirmative action for white males. Despite being black, my own
academic career also began that very same year, 1962, just a few miles up the
road from where McPherson's career began, at Douglass
College , Rutgers University University
of Chicago
Gary Becker (1930-2014). By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: More than half a century after Professor Becker's
landmark work on the economics of discrimination, most controversies on that
subject, both in the media and in politics, go on in utter ignorance of his
penetrating insights. So do laws and policies that make discrimination worse.
As someone who has written about racial discrimination within the framework of
analysis that Becker created, I am especially indebted to him, and wish only
that more people were aware of that framework, which could spare us much
rhetoric and offer some useful understanding instead. (I have not read Becker's
book, The Economics of Discrimination
(Economic Research Studies). It is linked here: http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Discrimination-Economic-Research-Studies/dp/0226041166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399378396&sr=8-1&keywords=Economics+of+Discrimination+Becker
~Bob)
Black People Duped. By Walter Williams
Excerpt:
For several decades, blacks have held significant political power, in the form
of being mayors and dominant forces on city councils in major cities such as Philadelphia Detroit Washington , Memphis Tenn. , Atlanta Baltimore New Orleans Oakland Calif. , Newark N.J. , and Cincinnati
Sex and Race Equality. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: There are several race and sex issues that need
addressing. Let's look at a few of them with an ear to these questions: Should
we insist upon equal treatment of people by race and sex or tolerate differences in treatment? And just how equal are people by
race and sex in the first place? According to the National Institutes
of Health, male infants 1 to 3 months old should be fed 472 to 572
calories per day, whereas their female counterparts should receive 438
to 521 calories per day. That's an official sex-based caloric 10 percent
rip-off of baby females. In addition to this government-sanctioned war on
women, one wonders whether the NIH has a race-based caloric rip-off where they
recommend that black newborns receive fewer calories than white newborns.
Coming End to Racial Preferences. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: She went on to make the incredible argument that
the amendment, which explicitly forbids racial discrimination, itself amounts
to racial discrimination. Her argument was that permissible
"race-sensitive admissions policies," the new name for racial
preferences, both serve the compelling interest of obtaining the educational
benefits that flow from a diverse student body and inure people to the benefit
of racial minorities. By the way, no one has come up with hard evidence of the
supposed "educational benefits" that come from a racially mixed
student body, and there's mounting evidence of harm done to minorities through
academic mismatching.
Equality in
Discipline. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: George Leef, director of research for the North
Carolina-based John
William Pope
Center
OK to Feel Sorry. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: The widespread and open criticism of Rodman shows
that there's been considerable progress and that I don't have to feel as sorry
for white people. But what about the weak media response to Rep. Henry C.
Johnson, D-Ga., who, during a 2010 House Armed Services Committee hearing
concerning U.S. military buildup on Guam, told Adm. Robert F. Willard, the then
commander of U.S. Pacific Command, “My fear is that the whole island will
become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize”? Adm. Willard
replied, with all sincerity, “We don't anticipate that.” I'd pay serious money
to know what the admiral and his white staff said about Johnson after they left
the hearing room. Then there's Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who asked NASA
scientists whether they could drive the Mars rover to where Neil Armstrong
placed the American flag.
Beyond affirmative
action to colorblindness. By Ben S. Carson
Excerpt: As a child growing up in Detroit
and Boston , I
had many opportunities to experience the ugly face of racism and witnessed the
devastating toll exacted by its mean-spirited nature.
I was a victim of the racism of low expectations for black
children, but in retrospect, I can see that many of those attitudes were based
on ignorance. Large numbers of white people actually believed that blacks were
intellectually inferior, and there were a host of other inaccurate beliefs that
whites held about blacks and that blacks held about whites.
Neurosurgeon, opinion
maker Dr. Ben Carson visits Mississippi College
Excerpt: “It starts with the people. The people must
understand that they are being manipulated. We have to start talking to each
other, and not allow our talking points to be taken from the media, and from
the political class, and particularly from the purveyors of political
correctness,” Carson said.
NAACP requires
marchers protesting North Carolina
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/08/naacp-requires-marchers-protesting-north-carolina-voter-id-law-to-show-photo-id/#ixzz2zYQa92lu
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/08/naacp-requires-marchers-protesting-north-carolina-voter-id-law-to-show-photo-id/#ixzz2zYQa92lu
Excerpt: North Carolinians marching to protest voter-ID laws
must present a valid photo ID to participate in an NAACP-hosted protest against
voter-ID laws in Raleigh
on Saturday.
A Black Conservative
Takes on the 'Poverty Pentagon'
Excerpt: Woodson says the flap over Ryan's comments may end
up being beneficial if it sparks the “right conversation” about helping the
poor. “Low-income people haven't been on President Obama's agenda for five
years,” he says. We'd only add that while low-income people have indeed been
left behind in Obama's “recovery,” they have occasionally shown up on
his teleprompter.
Black Slave Owners by
Joseph Holloway
According to this article, there were 3,000 free black slave
owners in New Orleans in 1860 and over 400 in Charleston , SC
In a tangle over euphemisms for affirmative action.
By George F. Will
Excerpt: Anodyne euphemisms often indicate an uneasy
conscience or a political anxiety. Or both, as when
the 1976 Democratic platform chose
“compensatory opportunity” as a way of blurring the fact that the party favored
racial discrimination in the form of preferences and quotas for certain government-favored
minorities in such matters as government hiring, contracting and college
admissions. Since then, “affirmative action” has become the ubiquitous
semantic evasion.
Ignoring
Single-Parent Families in the Inequality Debate
Excerpt: The rise of single-parent families over the last 50
years is the strongest correlate of inequality in the United States , yet few politicians and
researchers will even address the issue when they talk about inequality, say
Robert Maranto, a professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas United States
has seen a rapid decline in the traditional two-parent family: In 1960, more
than 76 percent of African-Americans and almost 97 percent of whites were born
to married couples. Today, only 30 percent of black children are born to married
couples. For white children, that figure is 70 percent. Hispanics had an
out-of-wedlock birthrate of more than 50 percent in 2006. With out-of-wedlock
births and high divorce rates, one quarter of American children live in
single-parent homes. This is twice the rate in Europe .
... Just 2 percent of children raised in
two-parent families experience poverty long-term, while more than 20 percent of
children in single-parent families live in long-term poverty. Penn State U.S. poverty rate would be a full 25 percent
lower today if the U.S.
family structure resembled that of 1970.
What if Trayvon Had
Been White, and the Shooter Black? By Michael Filozof
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/what_if_trayvon_had_been_white_and_the_shooter_black.html#ixzz1qBLNnX9L
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/what_if_trayvon_had_been_white_and_the_shooter_black.html#ixzz1qBLNnX9L
Excerpt: We know what would happen in such a case. There
would be no white mobs in the street chanting "No justice, no peace!"
There would be no whites holding a "million hoodie march" in New York City . ... We know
this because in fact, such an event occurred in 2009 in Greece , N.Y., a suburb of Rochester . Roderick Scott, a black man, shot
and killed an unarmed white teen, Christopher Cervini, whom he believed was
burglarizing a neighbor's car, with a licensed .40 cal. handgun.
Blacks benefit from Florida
Excerpt: African Americans benefit from Florida ’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense
law at a rate far out of proportion to their presence in the state’s
population, despite an assertion by Attorney General Eric Holder that repealing
“Stand Your Ground” would help African Americans. Black Floridians have made
about a third of the state’s total “Stand Your Ground” claims in homicide
cases, a rate nearly double the black percentage of Florida ’s population. The majority of those
claims have been successful, a success rate that exceeds that for Florida whites.
Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting by party
Over 80% of Republicans in the
House and Senate voted for the bill. Fewer than 70% of Democrats did. But a
great many of the Democrats that voted no were from the south.
The ‘Racism’
Wrecking Ball: Indiscriminate charges of racism do more harm
than good, as Martin Luther King well knew. By John Fund
Excerpt: Shouting
“racism” in a crowded media and political theater has become a substitute for
thought and debate in America
IAC PR exec fired over offensive AIDS tweet
In case you think casual, thoughtless racism doesn't exist
today. ~Bob
Cliven Bundy Under
Fire for ‘Negro’ Comments, Wondering Whether Blacks Would Be ‘Better Off as
Slaves, Picking Cotton’
Excerpt: “And because they were basically on government
subsidy, so now what do they do?” he continued. “They abort their young
children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to
pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking
cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under
government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
Excerpt: The controversy over Cliven Bundy’s “racist”
remarks has taken a new turn after longer unedited footage emerged showing the Nevada cattle rancher
making pro-black and pro-Mexican comments that were excised out of media
reports. ... We’ve progressed quite a bit from that day until now, and sure
don’t want to go back; we sure don’t want the colored people to go back to that
point; we sure don’t want the Mexican people to go back to that point; and we
can make a difference right now by taking care of some of these bureaucracies,
and do it in a peaceful way. ... Now, let me talk about the Spanish people. You
know I understand that they come over here against our constitution and cross
our borders. But they’re here and they’re people – and I’ve worked side-by-side
a lot of them. Don’t tell me they don’t work, and don’t tell me they don’t pay
taxes. And don’t tell me they don’t have better family structure than most of
us white people. When you see those Mexican families, they’re together, they
picnic together, they’re spending their time together, and I’ll tell you in my
way of thinking they’re awful nice people.
CNN Talks To Black
Bundy Bodyguard: ‘He Is Not A Racist. He’s Pretty Much Treating Me Just Like
His Own Family’
President Obama:
Alleged Donald Sterling remarks 'incredibly offensive'
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/president-obama-donald-sterling-remarks-106062.html#ixzz30Gfnfk3V
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/president-obama-donald-sterling-remarks-106062.html#ixzz30Gfnfk3V
Excerpt: TMZ first posted an audio recording Friday of a
conversation reportedly between Sterling
and his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, where the owner told her not to bring black
players to team games or post pictures with African-Americans on Instagram. “It
bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black
people. Do you have to?” the voice in the recording says.
Clippers owner Donald
Sterling banned for life from NBA, fined $2.5 million by NBA
Excerpt: The NBA threw the book at LA Clippers owner Donald
Sterling, banning him for life, fining him $2.5 million and raising the
possibility of a forced sale of the team over racist remarks he made to an
ex-girlfriend that surfaced on a tape recording.
Authorities
investigate alleged racial threat in Stoughton
Excerpt: The family of the 18-year-old man told police a
letter sent to their home in Stoughton
included a photo showing two men hanging from a tree, with his picture
superimposed onto one of the men, according to a posting on the newspaper's
website.
More Tea Party
Racists?
Photo of black Tea Party members. I have not rusticated the
picture. ~Bob
Thug Life: Who’s your
daddy? Apparently, no one. By Crystal Wright
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/crystal-wright-conservative-black-chick/2014/jan/9/thug-life-whos-your-daddy-apparently-no-one/#ixzz2pwBKK1rw
Excerpt: Liberals and some liberal blacks have expressed disdain for the Omaha police in posting the video, claiming it stereotypes blacks and the man’s behavior is an anomaly. But the opposite is true. In DC where I currently live and witness frequently uneducated blacks calling each other and their children the same sorts of heinous names. I have never seen white people talk to each other this way, much less their children.
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/crystal-wright-conservative-black-chick/2014/jan/9/thug-life-whos-your-daddy-apparently-no-one/#ixzz2pwBKK1rw
Excerpt: Liberals and some liberal blacks have expressed disdain for the Omaha police in posting the video, claiming it stereotypes blacks and the man’s behavior is an anomaly. But the opposite is true. In DC where I currently live and witness frequently uneducated blacks calling each other and their children the same sorts of heinous names. I have never seen white people talk to each other this way, much less their children.
‘Racist’ Storm Over Black Toddler Being Taught Obscenities
Excerpt: After the Omaha Police Officers’ Association highlighted
a shock video of a black toddler being encouraged by his family to spout
obscenities as a warning against the “cycle of violence and thuggery,”
subsequent outrage was not directed against the family but against the police
association for being racist.
Why People Fail. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: And yet it’s undeniable that some cultures succeed
where others fail.
The left refuses to distinguish between culture and race;
denouncing everything from criticism of Islam to complaints about gang culture
as racist. It treats culture as equivalent to race because it doesn’t believe
that people are capable of change.
To defeat poverty, look to marriage. By Kathleen Parker
Excerpt: The really lucky ones are also born into stable,
educated families with financial security and grown-up parents. Then there are
the unlucky, who, whatever their relative talents, are born into broken
families, often to single mothers, in neighborhoods where systemic poverty,
inferior educational opportunities and perhaps even crime constitute the
culture in which they marinate.
Benefits of Marriage
Paternal Involvement Increases College
Excerpt: Teenagers with involved fathers are significantly
more likely to graduate from college, says Bradford Wilcox, associate professor
in the department of sociology at the University of Virginia
Black Unemployment: Not Just a Disgrace, a
Sin. By John Ransom
Excerpt: “Blacks disproportionately left the labor market,”
said Dean
Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a
liberal economic outfit, “with the labor force participation rate for African
Americans dropping by 0.3 percentage points to 60.2 percent, it’s lowest rate
since December of 1977. The rate for African American men fell 0.7 percent to
65.6 percent, the lowest on record.”
The Left Versus the Realities of Race. By Jack Kerwick
Excerpt: In almost every instance of the so-called “knock
out game,” perpetrators have been black and their victims mostly white (and/or)
Asian. There is one—and only one—case in which the racial dynamics of
this violence reversed course, an incident from Texas involving a white predator and a black
prey. Not unsurprisingly, this is the only instance of “the game” that Barack
Obama’s Department of Justice is choosing to pursue as a “hate crime.”
Trader Joe's pulls
plug on Northeast Portland development after
'negative reactions' from community
Black "leaders" often complain that black
neighborhoods have higher food prices and fewer jobs due to racism. Imagine if
white folks opposed a store because it would bring in too many blacks! Not to
mention that this type of racist statement from blacks encourages white racism
in response. ~Bob.
Mob of teens film
themselves attacking and robbing disabled vet while shouting 'Knock that white
boy out!'
Excerpt: Three teenagers accused of beating and robbing a
disabled Army veteran on an Ohio
bus while shouting racial slurs have been arrested. (While this hurts the
victim, it also hurts decent black folks who will suffer from the stereotype of
black violence. ~Bob)
Obama Kicking a Door: Racist
http://conservativebyte.com/2014/02/student-forced-apologize-emailing-pic-obama-kicking-door-racism/
Excerpt: Anything critical
of Obama is racist anymore. Check it out: A
student at McGill University in Montreal Canada
Medal Of Honor Awarded To Veterans Possibly Passed Over Due To Racism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/22/medal-of-honor-racism_n_4837454.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share
I think this rights a wrong, as it is very likely in my view
they were downgraded due to race. Impossible to know what was in the reviewers'
heads, of course. ~Bob
NYC: More Black Babies Killed by Abortion
Than Born
Excerpt: In 2012, there were more black babies killed by
abortion (31,328) in New York City than were born there (24,758), and the black
children killed comprised 42.4% of the total number of abortions in the Big
Apple, according to a report by the New York City Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene. (Somewhere, eugenicist Margaret Sanger --
founder of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a staunch proponent of
the forced sterilization and abortions of black and minority children -- is
smiling. --The Patriot Post.)
Excerpt: There is a country in the Middle East where 10 percent of the population is denied equal
rights because of their race, where black men are not allowed to hold many government positions, where black
women are put on trial for witchcraft and where the custody of children is
granted to the parent with the most “racially superior” bloodline. This Apartheid State
is so enormously powerful that it controls American foreign policy in the Middle
East even as its princes and princesses bring their slaves to the United Kingdom and the United States.
Why Does Hollywood
Excerpt: Yet I
can’t recall ever seeing a film that deals with the fact that in 1775, George Washington offered a reward
for the capture and return of eight runaway white servants who’d escaped his
clutches.
Supreme Court upholds
Michigan
Excerpt: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Michigan 's ban on using
race as a factor in college admissions. The justices said in a 6-2 ruling
that Michigan
voters had the right to change their state constitution to prohibit public
colleges and universities from taking account of race in admissions decisions.
The justices said that a lower federal court was wrong to set aside the change
as discriminatory.
Political
Competition, Not Racism, Changes Voter Alignments. By Michael Barone
Excerpt: You can find a more nuanced and thoughtful analysis
in Jonathan Chait's recent New York
magazine article, "The Color of His Presidency." Chait, a liberal,
starts off by noting that the post-racial America that Obama seemed to promise
in his 2004 national convention speech and his 2008 campaign has not come into
being. On the contrary, "Race, always the deepest and most volatile fault
line in American history," he writes, "has now become the primal
grievance in our politics, the source of a narrative of persecution each side
uses to make sense of the world." Many liberals see racism in every
criticism of the Obama presidency, even though, as Chait points out, Bill
Clinton met with similar and in some cases more strident opposition.
The Color of His
Presidency. By Jonathon Chait
Excerpt: A different, unexpected racial argument has taken
shape. Race, always the deepest and most volatile fault line in American
history, has now become the primal grievance in our politics, the source of a
narrative of persecution each side uses to make sense of the world. Liberals
dwell in a world of paranoia of a white racism that has seeped out of American
history in the Obama years and lurks everywhere, mostly undetectable.
Conservatives dwell in a paranoia of their own, in which racism is used as a
cudgel to delegitimize their core beliefs. And the horrible thing is that both
of these forms of paranoia are right. (It's hard to get to the full article,
but what you can read is interesting. ~Bob)
It’s Hard to See Racism When You’re a Collectivist.
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: It’s not that the left believes that affirmative
action isn’t racist. It’s that it believes that there is no such thing as
racism against white people. Like the Knockout Game or white students who
qualify on merit but can’t get into college because of racial diversity quotas;
it’s an invalid category. A myth. And if it’s a myth, then there’s nothing
wrong with a little racial violence or a few racial preferences.
Some Of The Lost
History In The Civil Rights Movement. By Robert Rohlfing
Excerpt: It should also be noted that LBJ was not the great
Crusader of Civil Rights. President Johnson made a 360— turn in his civil
rights position when he became President, from 1940 to 1960 Johnson voted with
the South 78% on civil rights issues. Prior to 1957, Johnson voted with the
South 100% on civil rights issues. He also voted against the C.R.A. of 1957 and
1960.
Were you aware that in order to break the racist ways
of Southern Democrats, it was Republican President Eisenhower who
sponsored both Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act and it was a LBJ lead
Senate who fought tooth and nail against them? Ike finally signed a watered
down Civil Rights Bill. Yes, let me repeat that, Republican President Dwight
Eisenhower sponsored and signed the first Civil Rights Bill. (Interesting
"facts," but note the writer is a conservative so is spinning them
his way. Take for what it is worth. ~Bob)
What My Father Told
Me About LBJ and "Niggers." By Robert Morrow
Excerpt: They were sitting on either side of a narrow coffee
table in the Oval office and big Lyndon with his long strong arms and big
powerful Texas rough hands reached over and slapped both Seymore and George
hard on their knees and held their legs a moment and said "Now you boys,
you gotta get your G--damned asses back down to Alabama and make those
G--damned niggers act right and calm the hell down! I am G--damned tired of
hearing 'bout those G--damned niggers on the G--damned news every night! ...
From Ronald Kessler, Inside the Whitehouse, pp. 33-34: During one trip,
Johnson was discussing his proposed civil rights bill with two governors.
Explaining why it was so important to him, he said it was simple: “I’ll have
them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years.” That was the reason he
was pushing the bill,” said [Robert M. MacMillan, an Air Force One steward],
who was present during the conversation. “Not because he wanted equality for
everyone. It was strictly a political ploy for the Democratic party. (The
reported LBJ "Niggers voting Democrat" remarks are widely quoted on
conservative websites, including by black conservatives, but ignored or dismissed
by liberals. I'd rate it as second hand hearsay, but it may still be true.
Certainly other sources confirm that LBJ had a foul mouth, and we know about
his integrity from his first senate primary and his undeserved Silver Star from
one flight in the Pacific during WWII. The quote is disputed on the liberal
site below. ~Bob)
Highly Dubious LBJ
Quote & What It Says About Those Who Eagerly Believe It
Excerpt: For instance, DeMaio has been the target of
homophobic attacks. But where are those attacks coming from? It’s not always
from the far right social conservatives you’d expect; rather, it’s been from
DeMaio’s left – the liberal and Democrat-affiliated groups that you’d think
would be proud that an openly gay successful businessman has decided to run for
office. One false attack drew the attention of the San Diego Ethics Commission.
An anonymous left-wing group funded a SuperPac and sent mailers of DeMaio
Photoshopped next to a drag queen to neighborhoods with a majority of elderly
and African-American voters, knowing that such a photo would depress support
for DeMaio. That was so egregious and false that the group was fined by the
city’s Ethics Commission, but even after that, and with his 100 percent voting
record with the LGBT community, the Left still didn’t speak up to defend him.
They told DeMaio, “It’s complicated.”
25 Examples of Liberal Racism in Quotes. By John Hawkins
9 Racist Things that
Big Democrats Have Said and the Media Has Forgotten
Some different from above. ~Bob
10-Eye-Opening Quotes
From Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger
Excerpt: Margaret
Sanger has been lauded by some as a woman of valor, but a closer look
reveals that Planned Parenthood’s audacious founder had some unsavory things to
say about matters of race, birth control, and abortion. An outspoken eugenicist
herself, Sanger consistently promoted racist ideals with a contemptuous
attitude.
8 Things That Won't
Get You Banned by the NBA
Excerpt: 3. Being a publicly vicious racist while
black. Spike
Lee has stated that white gentrification of Harlem has been horrible,
has posted the address of George Zimmerman’s parents online to spur violence,
has explained after visiting South Africa in the early 1990s, “I seriously
wanted to pick up a gun and shoot whites. The only way to resolve matters is by
bloodshed.” He, like Donald Sterling, is no fan of interracial dating: “I give
interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on
the street.”
Stephen Colbert’s Politically Incorrect Joke on Twitter Has
People Calling for His Show to Be Cancelled. By Jason Howerton
Excerpt: Apparently channeling the “ignorant” character that
he plays on his TV show, comedian Stephen Colbert tweeted on Thursday, “I am
willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong
Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.”
Michelle Obama at Bowie State
"What shall we
do with the Negro?" By Frederick Douglass
"What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but
one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has
already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not
remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm eaten at the core,
if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying
or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they
will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own
legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own
legs! Let him alone!
Paul Ryan Laments
Inner-City Culture Of Not Working
Excerpt: "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our
inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the
culture of work," the Wisconsin Republican said on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" radio show.
"There is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with."
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) called Ryan's remark "deeply offensive."
"My colleague Congressman Ryan's comments about 'inner city' poverty are a
thinly veiled racial attack and cannot be tolerated," Lee said in an email
to reporters. "Let's be clear, when Mr. Ryan says 'inner city,' when he
says 'culture,' these are simply code words for what he really means:
'black.'"
Excerpt: And that so many Americans – of all races — have
turned against him and his bigotry is a good thing. That’s what’s missing from
coverage of the Donald Sterling story. And if you want to know how seriously we
take Sterling ’s racist remarks, consider
this: CNN has finally ended its non-stop coverage of the missing Malaysian
jetliner and now is going all out on Sterling .
In a country of more than 300 million people there are always going to be some
bigots. But they’ve become outliers in our culture – outcasts, actually.
Meet The Poster Child
For ‘White Privilege’ – Then Have Your Mind Blown. By Jennifer Kabbany
Excerpt: His name is Tal Fortgang, and just eight months
into his Ivy League experience, he’s been told on numerous occasions to “check
his privilege” – a phrase that has taken social media social
justice campaigning by storm. It is meant to remind white, heterosexual
males that they have it so good because they’re white, heterosexual males. They
haven’t faced tough times, they don’t know what it’s like to be judged by the
color of their skin. Oh, but they do. Those sick of being labeled are the very
same ones doing it to others, and Tal Fortgang has a powerful message for them:
The Dividends of Racial Politics. By Star Parker
Excerpt: Isn’t race supposed to be behind us? Hasn’t America
elected, twice, a black man as its president? But these days our president
is far less popular than he was when, with much fanfare, he was first
elected. ... Race is not going to go away because it is too useful to the
party of the left. In fact, it has never been so important. (Star Parker
[a black writer] is founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal
and Education, a 501c3 think tank which explores and promotes market based
public policy to fight poverty, as well as author of the newly revised Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government
Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can do About It.)
Ala. Dem Offers $100K for Proof of White Families Adopting Black Kids;
Families Show Up. Lawmaker previously lashed out against Clarence
Thomas by referencing his interracial marriage. By Andrew Johnson
Excerpt: Mixed-race families from across Alabama rallied outside the state capitol
recently to demand $100,000 in cash — or at least an apology — from a state
representative. Earlier this month, Alvin Holmes, who has represented the
Montgomery-area 78th District for 39 years, bet a substantial purse on his
claim that Alabama
whites were incapable of tolerating black children. “I will bring you $100,000
cash tomorrow if you show me a whole bunch of whites that adopted blacks in Alabama ,” Holmes said.
“I will go down there and mortgage my house and get it in cash in $20 bills and
bring it to you in a little briefcase.”
From a woman of faith
who loves America : ‘Black
people have been deceived’
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/01/from-a-woman-of-faith-who-loves-america-blacks-have-been-deceived-video/#ixzz30xH17cFt
Excerpt: Dr. Carol Swain, professor of law and political science atVanderbilt Law School America
I know and love I feel like is being destroyed by a black man. I don’t
understand why,” she said, discussing her serious concerns about President
Obama’s legacy in an interview with The Daily Caller.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/01/from-a-woman-of-faith-who-loves-america-blacks-have-been-deceived-video/#ixzz30xH17cFt
Excerpt: Dr. Carol Swain, professor of law and political science at
Islamic Antisemitism
Slavery still
exists
‘I Abducted Your
Girls,’ Nigerian Extremist Leader Admits
Excerpt: Extremist group Boko Haram's leader owned up to the
April kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria and vowed to "sell
them on the market." He also warned that his group plans to attack more
schools and abduct more girls.
Muslim Cleric Urges Homeless Women to Become
Sex-Slaves. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: Now, the same Islamic cleric who issued this
last “rape fatwa” has issued another fatwa urging destitute
women in war torn Syria
to become the “right hand possessions” of any man willing to support
them—basically, to sell themselves into sex-slavery.
(The Islamic Republic
of) Mauritania
Excerpt: The United Nations envoy on modern-day slavery said
on Thursday Mauritania had agreed to adopt a roadmap for eradicating the trade,
which campaigners say remains widespread in the west African nation. The
country was the last in the world to abolish slavery, in 1981, and since 2012
its practice has been officially designated a crime, but campaigners say the
government has failed in the past to acknowledge the extent of the trade, with
no official data available.
Posts
I agree with almost all that you wrote, Bob....except for your advocacy of citizenship for illegal aliens. You are in good company; another of my favorites, George Will, agrees with you. I tend to take a longer term view...we granted amnesty in 1986 and it set up the most massive invasion our country has ever experienced...and while praising Mexican families you totally ignored the crime plague we are experiencing, whether it is M-13 gangs, identify theft, hit and run vehicle slaughter, home invasions and an explosive Mexican prison population. Be well, my friend.
ReplyDeleteBob, I've already sent you a personal message for haven mis-read comments attributed to someone else. I promise to be a better reader next time. Please delete my earlier idiocy.
ReplyDeleteBob: I have just finished reading your essay on racism. I do have some comments, though. They are:
ReplyDelete1. There was a small number of misspellings and grammatical errors which, I am sure that you would have caught and corrected yourself.
2. Your essay is also too long. Depending on where you want to send it, you might consider breaking it into 6-7 different parts.
3. I would also recommend that you add as many paragraphs as needed to show the hypocritical relationship between northern liberals and their intertwined byplay between them and southern states trying to input the pros and cons of that relationship as the law and time has progressed.
Thanks, Paul Rendine
Enter comment as already written, please.
ReplyDeletePlease use my earlier comment as written. Thanks.
ReplyDelete