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Somebody needed to speak for the Silent Majority. ---Yes, and most are afraid to speak, ergo silent, for fear of being called a racist. Good for Patrick!
A Brief for Whitey
Posted 03/21/2008 ET
How would he pull it off? I wondered.
How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people? How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about 'the U.S. Of K.K.K. America,' and howled, 'God damn America!' My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables. Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were 'controversial,' and 'divisive,' and 'racially charged,' reflecting a 'distorted view of America.' But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation. Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country. The 'white community,' said Barack, must start 'acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... .' And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country? The 'white community' must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with 'ladders of opportunity' that were 'unavailable' to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations. What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure? Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, 'everybody but the rioters themselves.' Was 'white racism' really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery. Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these: First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American. Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks. We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude? Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids. Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent? Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself? As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time? Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse? We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing. Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago. |
9 comments on Racist in America
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Wow. That is certainly an open-minded approach to the conversation Barack mentions. I'm convinced that you have a justifiable position from which you form your opinions. While I have to admit that I have not been held back by racism, I know plenty of people who have and even with affirmative action in play, many places in our technology industries favor hiring and advancing based on race.
You ask, "Is it white America's fault?" We could spend all day trying to point a finger in every direction because it is not our fault. However, this does not help to resolve the problems facing our country and separating it. I don't know how you justify slavery and suffering and injustice (for anyone) and dismiss its gravity with such a glib wave of the hand and say that blacks should be grateful for all white America has done for them. By that very statement, you sink your own argument because the other side of the coin is that blacks should be eternally hatefull for all the suffering they've been handed by white people.
Personally, I believe in changing the world with efforts, not words. I am racist. I know this because I have made decisions based on a person's race and I have found there is more to people than their race. While I often get hung up on the trends that are pervasive in the ghettos and the inner-city areas, I also know that children are not racist and they embrace all other children without prejudice or racism. I would hope that we can allow our children to do that so when they grow they might be able to cultivate a more loving, tolerant and truly equal world for all.
There is no hunger in the hearts of children for revenge except that which we, the parents and the adults who raise the children, teach them. If we shower them with love and we give them strong examples about how they have choices and make those choices real for them, then the children will not stay in their ghetto life mindset of fatalism and impotence. But we have to work on this together, white, brown, black, yellow, all of us have to work together to make this happen and stop bickering about who's fault and who should do what and who should stop doing what.
We are all to blame because just as you pointed out, if we just sit there and let it continue the way it is going we justify the condition and affirm our acceptance of or agreement with the point of view and the problems.
I believe there will be great change if Barack is elected. Whether it is for the better or not will depend on Barack. Unfortunately, this will be one year when I elect across the party line. I am not proud of this but I do not feel that the republican party is representative of my views at the present. While their military agenda does satisfy my own fear of our country becoming too soft in the eyes of the global community, their domestic policies seem to be counterproductive and self-serving. I will not help promote their domestic agenda any longer. Things are not well at home and if our leaders are not capable of helping to rectify things, we need new leadership.
However, there is much to be admired in the free exchange of ideas. Thanks for sharing what you find and posting for us. I don't often spend enough time reading the news. I depend on blogs for my news.
Until next time.
John McCain is not my first choice , BUT I would vote for any republican before I could vote for a muslin terrorist loving , punk who hate's WHITE PEOPLE ,, I could vote for a black american if the right one was running , and I have hope that the Republican party will find it's way back where they were in 1994 !!!!!
Come on, Joe. Who created the terrorist threat in the first place. It was not our democratic partners in crime, it was the cold war specialists, the republicans. Besides, whatever you may think of any of his opponents, the key here is that McCain is a self-serving, money-hungry, racist liar. Now, I'm not saying Obama is the best man for the job but If it means the same old same old with McCain or some kind of change with Obama... well, I'm all for change.
Change just for changes sake is a foolish thing look what it got Germany when the voted of HITLER !!!!!
Do you now see why I did not make you a "friend" all I have to do is give people enough rope and the hang themselves , for you to call John McCain a racist money hungry liar shows your underbelly !!!!
I was not aware that I had asked to be your friend. I, however, accept all requests for friendship as you well know since you asked to be my friend.
Change in this day and age could not be bad. Hitler could happen but in our country there could be no Hitler. McCain has lied, McCain is self-serving, McCain does not represent the finest that America could be. While I am not sure what changes Obama would help to bring about, I am certain that it would be change for the better.
I am absolutely sure of it. So while you can make sensationalist comparisons and throw around a white supremacist name (was that some subliminal favorite you chose?) to shock and frighten, it is change for the sake of improving our country and the betterment of our society.
Don't consider this a jab, Joe. It is a blog, not a debate. Our exchange here means nothing and perhaps in your senile ways you have forgotten that you asked to be my "friend" some time ago, but I will remind you and explain it to you again if you "forget" again. I have that kind of patience and love for our veterans, especially marines but not exclusively marines.
To your health and prosperity.
EKY , I have never ask to be your friend , I have never ask anyone if I could be their friend , may GOD BOESS you and your tiny soul !!!!!
Wow joe, I must really get on your nerves...LOL. Again, let me say, that is not me. He will learn that you are a lost cause like the rest of us...
Go play in california and get married to your boyfriend ,but stay there, Kentucky will not recognize your sham marriage, and queers are not allowed on my page !!!