Posted on 08/28/2013 7:13:14 AM PDT by IChing
I grew up in a rural area of upstate New York that was overwhelmingly white, with almost no racial minorities around to speak of.
In school, and in books, magazines, and on TV, I was bombarded with messages and tales about the extent of horrors that whites had done to other races over the generations, especially to blacks.
For example, I was a tender lad of 13 or 14 when the wildly successful TV miniseries about slavery, Roots (based on the book of the same title by Alex Haley), dominated the airwaves and the national consciousness. Some of my schoolteachers during that year oriented much of their classroom time around discussion and study of the topic of Roots, and in my 7th-grade social studies class we spent weeks with specially developed materials designed to enlighten us about the anthropological dynamics of a certain tribe in Africa, the Egba Yoruba.
At that age, I was already a voracious reader, and became fascinated with the general subject of the black experience and race relations in our country. After watching Roots on TV, I got my hands on Alex Haley’s book, and read it cover to cover. I perused other books, such as The Me Nobody Knows: Children’s Voices from the Ghetto, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Black Like Me.
Starting in the first grade, I had been completely indoctrinated in the socio-political sainthood of Dr. Martin Luther King, and I was very inspired by his legacy. For a class assignment, I wrote and made my own illustrated book about Dr. King, out of construction paper, staples, and magic markers.
Similarly, I was imbued with a reverential respect for Abraham Lincoln, and the legend of his having so courageously freed the slaves. On an 8th-grade field trip to Washington, D.C. I gazed up in awe at Lincoln’s memorial statue on the National Mall. Many years later, by moonlight on the reflecting pool in 2005, I proposed to my wife on the steps of that monument to Lincoln. But as a younger person, nobody, none of my teachers or parents or media figures ever told me what Lincoln had actually said regarding his prognosis for race relations in America once slavery was ended–I found out about that only in recent years.
Having very little actual experience with members of other races as a kid, I was nonetheless left with stereotyped impressions from various media, which in later years I found to be pretty accurate. While visiting my grandparents on the New England coast, I began to gain real-world experience: On one occasion, a young black man stole a ten-speed bicycle from my grandmother’s driveway. During another visit, at age 15, I was shoved to the ground by a much larger black guy when he and his friends didn’t like the idea that my friends and I were partying on their turf.
It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I found out that Alex Haley plagiarized much of Roots from a white author, and was successfully sued for it. Not only that, but that key aspects of Haley’s supposedly genealogically-researched story, and its depiction of slavery, were completely falsified.
I entered Air Force basic training at age 17, and that was when my firsthand experience with blacks really got underway. In the ranks, I found many of my black fellow servicemen to be perfectly wonderful brothers in arms. Some others, not so much. But mainly, the military ethos, discipline, and overall environment made racial differences not too important, it seemed.
It wasn’t until after I left the service and ventured into the cities of Buffalo, N.Y., Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.(especially in black ghetto areas), mainly to do security and law enforcement work, that I became painfully aware, firsthand, of the shocking level of sheer depravity, chaos, racial hatred, crime, and mayhem that so many millions of black children are born into. After the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, and after having had numerous horrible experiences with hateful blacks on the streets and even in office workplace settings, I increasingly began to be concerned about what I sensed was an overall problem of a worsening racial situation in our country.
Whites and blacks all along throughout the years have been told that the problems of blacks are the responsibility of white people, for which whites should accept blame, and for which whites should come up with solutions, or at least bear the brunt of whatever remedies are declared, by whoever, to be in order. Simultaneously, outrageous levels of crime and violence done by blacks are to be publicly downplayed by the media and authorities, lest it be implied that black adults, parents, leaders, and so are to be held accountable.
The general approach has been that the overall condition of blacks in America is the result of the actions of whites, and therefore, whites must be the ones to make things better, and right.
Now, Barack Obama is in his second term as president, and has played a key role in aggravating and badly worsening the state of race relations throughout his occupation of that office. Obama entered the national scene fresh from two decades at the feet of Jeremiah Wright, and proceeded to hustle and con his way into the White House, appointing the blatantly race-oriented Eric Holder as his Attorney General.
With Obama’s shamefully divisive exploitation (for the purposes of rousing and rallying key blocs of his voting base) of local events such as the Henry Louis Gates incident and the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman debacle on the national stage, Obama has shown us all that poor leadership has disastrous consequences beyond implications for the overall economy and international intrigues/wars. Many Americans have to go about their daily lives concerned for their physical safety, while those in the highest offices of the land fan the flames of racial animosity and violence.
So what should white people think and do about it all?
If we assume that the races are intrinsically equal, we have to ask about, and expect a resolution to, the issue of whether and when blacks will, overall, ever assimilate to the standards of civilized society–because enough of them haven’t yet, so as to cause a grave alarm. So, what is it that whites must do, anyway? How many programs and apologies and decades of forbearance shall it take? If we are to operate in good faith, it should not be taboo to speculate in such a way.
We’re all familiar with that old saying, “you can’t keep a good man down.” It means, just as is found in the teachings of the ancient religions, that oppression is really only the test of character–and that if someone or something is keeping you down beyond a certain point, then you must not be a good man.
I'm a lesbian black disabled left-handed gay illegal-alien communist transgendered atheist union-member latino HIV-positive pregnant pagan anarchist cross-dresser.
The question is how did black population DEVOLVE into this condition (living in ghettoes with single mothers and no fathers)
Before LBJ and “The Great Society” black out-of-wedlock birth and marriage rates were actually better than whites.
What, about “the greate society”, made anything ‘great’
Buy more ammo.
I’m turning Japanese...
Well, according to the left, if a White is being assaulted by a Black, he should not fight back, and certainly not use a gun. Accept the dose of whoop-ass happily, and try to understand the reasons that you were attacked.
lmao
You've got all the categories checked!
less than 1/8, but responsible for 50% of the crime.
Which is actually worse than it sounds. Because if 1/8 of the population is commiting 50% of the crime then they are doing it at rates greater than 20 times anyone else.
I had an experience managing a business that was located in a mostly black part of town. I grew to hate the job. I was convinced these people were all incredibly bigoted black racists. If somebody had a problem and a white guy came out to try and address it for them it was katy-bar-the-door.
But after some time there I grew to realize that it wasn’t everybody. It was a hard-core group of 25 or 30 idiots who kept coming in all the time.
The PC answer: lay down and die.
Yeah, but we’re always saying that, and of course it’s pointless to bark up that tree after a certain point. This is a way of saying, well, what the hell are we supposed to do, anyway? We all know that even trillions in massive reparations outright would only make the problem worse, funding the pathologies even more, etc...
Bingo.
Surely that is part of the solution.
yep
That is my usual attitude. But unless millions and millions more people also do so...
In the 1960s when blacks were just ten percent of the population the extremist black groups exercised a great deal of influence especially in the MSM but it was generally accepted by most whites that the above statement was true.
Today race relations seem worse than ever with no easing in sight. Back then the relations were tense but even the black extremists advised to "Take ten." Meaning to give it a break.. no, wait. Take ten. Ten percent of the population. Now I remember! They meant that each black American should kill ten white American. Never mind.
When blacks love their children more than they hate me they will achieve economic success. More economic success will lead to more racial harmony.
Whites have done their part already.
Whites walked with blacks during the civil rights movement, whites fought to end slavery, whites changed their outlooks and their hearts towards acceptance. And we did a darn good job.
But look where it’s gotten us.
It’s time for the Black community to do theirs.
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