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.
The title is wrong, it should be***** what can blacks do to improve race relations IN America.They burned down their own neighborhoods and wonder why no one wants to open a business there...I suggest they clean up the squalor and hate they live off of and patrol their own neighborhoods cause when whites try to do it, they riot again....Seems like quite a few cannot learn reality of their own lack of responsiblilty....sad situation, not of my making. Even many of their pastors spew hate from the pulpit...I just don’t care anymore, except for the decent ones that are stuck there...
Stop taking crap from black people. As long as we allow them to get special treatment by crying racism, they’ll keep doing it. It will only ever stop when they realize they don’t get anywhere with that nonsense.
LMAO
Perfect! We’ll waive the voter ID rules for you.
Yeah but, slavery made them do it.
Things won’t improve until blacks tell Sharpton to swipe that race card in the crack of his ass just like swiping an EBT card.
Exactly.
Yeah but, just like the mooslimbs, the rest of them agree by their inaction. They are just as culpable.
“What Can Whites Do to Improve Race Relations in America?”
Take your beatings gracefully.
Sure is.
Develop a bomb that kills everyone except caucasians.
Thanks.
Doing anything different is racism as that is taking action based on race.
“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.”
It’s worse than that...the crime is mostly by males (which brings us to 1/16), then males under 30 (1/32?).
Comment removed by moderator..
There... Saved a few steps..
As far as blacks are concerned, whites must work for the good of the entitled, turn over all our income and property to them via government confiscation, and provide for their every want.
Improvement is a relative term. It is clear however that improvement is based on what white people do or don’t do and blacks, in particular, have no responsibility nor part of ‘improvement’. Why should I be concerned with their well being when it is abundantly obvious that blacks have no concern for the welfare of whites whatsoever?
They were both absentee parents for most of Trayvon’s life. Mom didn’t care about him, shipped him off to live with someone else every chance she got. Daddy was so busy scoring his next Bitch/Ho (sorry, just trying to be current) that he didn’t even notice Trayvon when he was around. They didn’t know their own son. What was the first thing his broken hearted mom did? Trademark her dead son’s name! CLASSY!
Feel sorry for these PATHETIC excuses for human beings? Not for one second.
Job 4:8
As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it
Proverbs 22:8
Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.
Offer $10,000 cash ( or more) and airfare to any country in Africa that will accept them , with stipulation that they give up their right to ever return to the USA, along with complete secessation of ALL entitlements and enacting laws that severely punish men who father babies out of wedlock.
They can choose to stay here and clean up their act or take the cash and go back to their ‘homeland’. Those who stay would be expected to assimilate into America and its moral and civic culture.
Those who are good, moral and hardworking will appreciate the opportunities of America and be happy and grateful to stay on these terms. They would probably be glad to see the violent depraved segment of their race leave here. The lazy and immoral will jump at the chance to get a big ‘stash’ of cash and go live like kings somewhere else. It would be a bargain for us!
Yes, but they will never do that until white people stop accepting the race card. As long as it gets them what they want, they will keep using it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.