Posted on 07/22/2013 6:08:33 AM PDT by shortstop
The president told us on Friday what it’s like to be black in America.
A couple of days before that, his attorney general said that America needs to be honest about race. Since then, any number of prominent black people have said we need to have a national discussion about race.
So let’s.
Let’s have a discussion about race.
Not a one-sided harangue, but a two-way discussion. Let’s move beyond the politically correct “Whites are racists, blacks are victims” and actually talk things out.
You do that by hearing both sides.
Toward that end, in the spirit of the president’s remarks, I’d like to discuss what it’s like to be a white man in America. And I’d like to be held to the same standard as the president. His remarks were personal impressions based on generalizations, traditions, culture and folklore.
He was called brave.
I’ll be called racist.That’s because our system is based on a double standard. Black criticisms of white society are insightful; white criticisms of black society are bigotry.
White people know that if they say anything that doesn’t exactly toe the line of political correctness, they run the risk of losing their jobs and their public reputations. We live in a society where the accusation of racism is evidence enough; to be accused is to be guilty.
That’s what we white people think.
We also think that we pay the bills. We think that we disproportionately pay the taxes and that black people disproportionately collect the welfare. We feel like we are being ripped off and that this uneven shouldering of the burden will eventually bankrupt and kill our country.
I work in a building that houses a Social Security office. One elevator serves that office specifically. It is stunning to note the demographic difference between the elevators. Overwhelmingly, white people go up one set of elevators to work, and black people go up the other set of elevators to apply for SSI.
Young, healthy people.
All day long.
The culture of many white Americans is one of hard work and self-reliance. Our heritage teaches us that work is ennobling, and our religion teaches us that by the sweat of our brow we should eat our bread.
And we feel like we are being robbed by a socially dysfunctional urban black America where out-of-wedlock birth, educational failure, criminal conduct and other irresponsibility perversely entitle people to money we earned to support our families.We believe that races are equal, but cultures are not, and that a woefully failed black urban culture is cancerously destroying lives and communities. And we feel like we have to both foot the bill to support it and fight it, and watch out for spillover that might threaten us.
White people also believe black America has a predatory crime problem that creates a real danger for all of us.
We believe that because it happens to be an undeniable truth. Blacks are disproportionately involved in crime, and while some blacks believe that’s because of a racist criminal justice system, most whites believe it’s because blacks are more likely to commit crime.
We all pretend not to notice the race of the mug shots on the evening news, but we’re only pretending. We notice, and we don’t forget. We don’t believe the criminal justice system is victimizing inmates, we believe the criminal justice system is protecting us from inmates. We believe people in prison deserve to be there – they did the crime, they do the time.
Black violence – much of it directed against other blacks – has over the years since 9-11 racked up a higher body count than the war on terrorism.
White people think that is a big deal.
If black people are complaining about Stand Your Ground laws of self-defense, white people are saying that you don’t have to worry about it if you don’t attack anybody. The cry against Stand Your Ground is a cry in defense of people who are violently assaulting other people. Black people are disproportionately injured in all types of self-defense situations because black people are disproportionately involved in attacking other people, and pushing those people into self-defense. That’s not a problem with the law, that’s a problem with people’s conduct.
White people also believe that we are disadvantaged in the workplace. We believe that quotas and diversity programs discriminate against us in hiring and promotion. This is truest in the government and corporate workplaces.
It’s true for the white male hoping to get hired on the police or fire department, and it’s true for the mid-career white person passed over for less-qualified minority employees.
Many white people are bothered by the social conduct of some black people. Often there is a loud, obnoxious and profane behavior, and a crude sexual harassment of women in public settings.
Black apologists often speak of “culture” and of the need for whites to understand and respect black culture. The president on Friday said we needed sensitivity training. Many whites would like that to be a two-way street. We’d like a little courtesy extended to our sensitivities, too.
White people believe that black people have a chip on their shoulder about race. And a persecution complex. And an inability sometimes to talk or think about anything else.
We also think that black people get pulled over by the police for the same reasons anyone does – for breaking the traffic law – and that the cry of racism anytime anyone has contact with the police is a bunch of crud.
These are some of the things white people think.
Of course, my account is just as full of generalizations as the president’s. He made assumptions about the thinking of the very diverse group of Americans who happen to be black, and he made assumptions about the thinking of the very diverse group of Americans who happen to be white. I have done the same. He was undoubtedly part right and part wrong. I am also undoubtedly part right and part wrong.
Do you think some of my observations were hurtful and overbroad? What of the president’s implicit assertions that white women on elevators are racists, and that cops on patrol are racists, and that store employees are racists? Are his claims different or more justified?
The president, to the extent that he understands the subject, told us what it’s like to be a black man in America.
But what he had was not a conversation, it was a condemnation. And two can play that game.
With all this clamoring in recent days for a conversation, it is understood that what activists and politicians really want is one more denunciation of white America. The conversation is about how racist America is and how unfair it is to blacks.
And that’s simply not true.
And if this is truly a conversation, then I am free to say that.
But I’m not.
And that’s what it means to be white in America.
Of course my son knew that, and the "White Culture" his mom and I instilled in him was enough to prevent "Black Culture" behavior.
I agree that talk has to come from Obama.
However he seems oblivious to the need for it.
He is stuck on anti-White bias. Just like so many others.
We have had anti-White bias for so long, it seems all anyone knows.
So to an extent I agree with you.
I was merely explaining why up until now, I have partly agreed with the black agenda.
However my other point is, now we are beyond that. Whites are no longer the problem. Whites have given. And changed. And everything which was asked of them/us.
I don’t hear anyone saying that.
Not one person.
That has now become the single largest problem.
This black “everyone things the same” mindset, is now the problem.
Obama wake up.
(except he doesn’t seem genuinely concerned with solving anything)
OK that’s enough. Thanks for the discussion. :D
One of my favorite examples seems to go unnoticed by everyone else. “The Family Feud” is on TV a lot, reruns are continously shown, there are two familes on each show. Blacks are approximately one eighth of the American population, therefore I would expect that every fourth show should have a black family competing, that would be one family out of eight. In reality there is a black family on almost every show. Very seldom is there an episode without a black family. How do you account for that?
No, I don’t watch it continously but I watched it some in the old days when Richard Dawson hosted and I have watched it a few times recently with Steve Harvey, it is good for laughs sometimes.
You have to understand that anti-White bias is simply a proxy for hating their true Enemy.
My ancestors elected to migrate north,out of Africa,yours elected to stay.End of story.
One more thing.
I’ve had to deal with this whole race issue my entire life.
I grew up in Cleveland and rode Cleveland buses.I was molested numerous times and felt as though I had no where to turn.I was spit on called ugly names on and on.My sister has just opened up about what she went through.I did not know about her trials.I finally escaped,by running away from home.My parents and sister stayed in that dreadful neighborhood for another few years before finally “running for their lives” out of Cleveland.
Most blacks didn’t have ‘equality’ in mind with the agenda. It’s always been about ‘get even’ and ‘revenge’. The equality stuff was what they told the useful idiots. Revenge was the first thing in their minds. I’ve known too many black people throughout my whole life. Most of them have been honest about this and upfront. The whole idea was to get even.
And they’re getting it now. What is shocking to the couple I’ve talked to honestly about it is that they’re getting away with it and it was as easy as it was. This only fuels the perception that whites are weak. Most social change, like the ‘civil rights movement’ required wars and genocide in other places and times. ‘Civil rights’ was achieved with neither. If you think you will be able to reverse their idea of ‘civil rights’ that includes free everything without some serious personal and national pain you’re delusional. it’s like those tire damage strips at the airport. You can only go one way without a lot of problems...Having gotten free everything for 3 and 4 generations now you will never ever convince them that working is a better choice. Why should they? Are you going to make them?
Obama is a useful idiot for our enemies. They’re using him to further the divide for their own purposes. It’s not difficult though. It’s nothing he himself doesn’t believe in.
He and his family will have a Jeep card and end up somewhere warm and peaceful when it all goes TU here though. The rest of us, black and white, won’t.
My only solace is that some of money that gets transferred to them comes right back again due to the spending habits of the lower classes.
The same is true of muslim terrorists. The left says we need to understand they have a different culture.
Hate, violence and evil are not “culture”.
These days, when things are said by the left that are shockingly absurd, I can only explain it one way.
Satan.
Indeed.
The “white culture” is based on Christian values and God’s law.
This is truly what they oppose, and why they support anything that can be used to thwart and destroy it.
Amen, Amen to every sentence.
This is truly what they oppose, and why they support anything that can be used to thwart and destroy it.
This!
LOL! I thought it was “moldering”.
My ancestors fought for the South, I was born during WWII in a South Carolina county that was still far from recovering from the “civil” war and reconstruction. We have also given enough already. I don’t know a single black person who carries my surname or my mother’s maiden name so apparently my family did not consist of rich plantation owners with a lot of slaves. My grandfather owned a lot of farm land but he bought it with the earnings from being a house builder, it was not inherited plantation land. My great grandfather was a Confederate soldier but he certainly was not a slave owner.
The cry against stand your ground is the cry of civil lawyers who no longer can file civil suits after a criminal aquital.
It was the criminal suing the victim.
Crump and his ilk want redistribution for using inalianble rights (see ussc strict scrutiny test)
The story of the white toddler being shot in the face by 2 black thugs, er of course I meant “teens”, should be a national story, but it isn’t. Whites are tired of being victims and will move as far away from blacks as they can. If white flight was bad before, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
What do you foresee as epoch VII?
that’s when they’ll start to figure things out.
On the bright side, we'll get every penny we ever put into social security...
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