Posted on 03/21/2015 11:56:09 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fanatics believe their opinions are unbiased and unassailable. Conservatives, who contemptuously ridicule everything Barack Obama, believe their opinions sacred and his ideas sacrilegious. They have not come to terms with the fact that a black person occupies the White House as president, and not as a cook.
Many conservatives grudgingly admit that his Bloody Sunday speech in Selma was a great speech, but could not resist belittling it. He has been accused of fomenting strife, opening old wounds and politicizing the event. Bloody Sunday was politicized when the Congressional GOP leadership announced they would not attend. They were pandering to a tea party base that has no civil rights wounds. The move was not surprising, considering the hatred and disrespect they have shown for the president.
Standing arm-in-arm with Obama in Selma would have shown solidarity for a cause he espouses. Their absence only illuminated their hypocrisy, and illustrated how badly out of touch they are with the poor, the marginalized and the "others" among us. Those with power work only for those with power. That is the legacy of our democracy. It is what Martin Luther King Jr. talked about, wrote about and walked about.
The cauldron of discord did not need to be stirred by the president. Discord and distrust were fomented by the memory of police behavior that demonstrates again and again that the lives of black males are worthless. The caustic brew was stirred by those who work tirelessly to reverse the advances made by minorities and women. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a public policy organization with close ties to the GOP. ALEC is guiding the efforts of lawmakers to curtail voting rights, abortion rights and matrimonial rights. The agenda of ALEC fuels the antitheses of equal rights for minorities and women.
To argue that statements from Barack Obama are fueling more strife is spurious and without merit. The recent shooting of two white policemen in Ferguson, Mo., serves the purpose of Obama detractors. They will blame his Selma remarks for the outrage. The responsibility is the rampant culture of disrespect for people of color in America. Justice needs to be served for that act, as it was for the shootings by policemen.
Whose wounds are we talking about here? These are the wounds of minorities and women. We, who have been bloodied for centuries, are counseled to hide our wounds. Our wounds are grim reminders of injustices imposed by slave masters, Ku Klux Klansmen, hate-filled politicians and others. These organizations have morphed into neo-Nazis, skinheads and other racist groups. Our wounds help us not to forget. The eyes of the world have grown accustomed to America's hypocrisy regarding race, gender and civil rights.
Let us not forget the wounds inflicted by the culture of "white privilege" in America, the 2015 variety of "segregation" and "white supremacy." This view holds that whites are privileged in every respect — a birthright. It is the norm. Nobody sits around and strategizes about white privilege. It is so ingrained in our society that we take it for granted. Look consciously and you will see it in action. Power in America is wielded by whites, mainly white men. And they do whatever it takes to keep it. This is not to see all white people as racists. That stoops to the level of racists. And, most assuredly, not all minorities are saints. White privilege is simply the world into which we are born.
Some white parents talk glibly about expecting a son to be killed if he attacks a policeman during an arrest or confrontation. White privilege guarantees that a white son is given immunity from such a confrontation. My sons and Obama's son, if he had one, would be certain of such a confrontation. The culture of white privilege prevails no matter the race of the policeman. Those who benefit most from this form of racism shout loudest for the "others" to pull themselves up by their boot straps. Their focus obscures the absence of boots and straps. These are people like Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, GOP presidential candidates. Success for either would cause a decline in the middle class. A decline much worse than the recent financial crises from which Obama rescued the U.S. economy.
A study by the Justice Department unearthed the cancerous racism that white privilege has created in Ferguson. The results of that study portend worse outcomes for all of us than black leaders speaking for the voiceless. The unhappy truth is that Ferguson is not an isolated case. White transgression, especially if it is against minorities, is expected to be excused, forgiven and instantly forgotten. What would a similar study reveal about Tuscaloosa and its policing policies? Not accusing, just asking.
Wounds constantly being ripped open will never heal. The untimely deaths of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and others at the hands of white policemen are symbolic of our wounds being ripped and torn. Many would have us remain silent in the face of the kind of aggression and malevolent treatment they would not tolerate. These are the same conservatives who admonish us to hide our wounds, for fear the exposed wounds may get diced and sliced by the twin daggers of racism and sexism. This would create more discord. Their primary concern is the discord, not the wounds.
I am grateful that the president made the journey to Selma. He admonished us all to remember ,"Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished…. Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation's founding, our union is not yet perfect. But we are getting closer."
America is not an inherently evil or irredeemable place. That does not mean I think America and Americans are above criticism. We must all work to make it what it professes to be; a place where all of us are equal under the law. All but the most narrow-minded will agree that in 2015, not all Americans are equal under the law. Obama sees America as neither sinless nor broken beyond repair. He believes as fervently as I do that together, we can fix our great country. To do so, we must stop believing that all white is all right and all black get to the back.
******
Oscar Tucker is a retired Tuscaloosa educator. Readers can email him at otucker@ comcast.net.
Seems like the yellow and brown races do quite well. It’s just a matter of respect for education. People who get educated have no trouble in society. If someone would convince black people that they should get educated, no one would recognize white privilege - it’s white education.
Is it white privilege or cultural choice that determines who progresses? Speaking what is almost unintelligible black English, wearing a hoodie and trousers with their crotch at knee level and their underwear on full display, listening to violent rap and expressing like opinions all just might limit your career choices and stereotype their behavior. The police are going to be extra cautious around the type of people they’ve had problems with before.
The Occupy type whites with their Attitude!!, facial piercing, filthy vagrant dress, Marxist chants, and brightly colored hair are in for the same prejudicial police treatment and lack of job prospects beyond Carl’s Junior that their hood rat black counterparts complain about.
I feel very very sad for Mr. Tucker’s students. The man is a moron. An idiot. A dangerous idiot. His drivel is so easy to tear apart.
For one, his premise that we all can’t stand the man because he’s black and NOT a cook in the white house is pathetic. Same tired old race baiting as usual.
Second, conservatives did not stand hand in hand with Obama because they were not allowed to. Obama wants the pomp and circumstance of walking with race hustlers. Republicans that werre there were cut out of the pictures.
I could spend all day on retorts but there is growing grass to watch.
In comparing blacks to whites, they simply don’t want to admit that the WASP ethic is superior to the anarchy into which much of black America has descended. Education, hard work, breeding within a family structure...this is “white privilege (and more and more whites are losing it).
Exactly.
“White priviledge” is what comes with hard work, discipline, frugality, and morals.
People who practice those things do better in life.
It is that inequality of outcome, based on self discipline and performance, that the race hustlers hate.
He knows. They all know but that’s all they’ve got. The Race Card.
Nope.
And a bigot occupying a position of privilege.
Yes, you do Oscar.
Found the problem....
That’s right; they don’t want to be told that living as perpetual adolescents isn’t a viable option.
“They have not come to terms with the fact that a black person occupies the White House as president, and not as a cook.”
Stopped reading it right there.
Two to three generations of never-married families has created unstable communities.
That is true in Appalachia, that is true in Chicago.
The reason we see this is racial is that 3/4 of blacks are illegitimate, while 1/4 of whites are.
The inequality comes about when multiple generations have never worked a day in their lives, either.
Even in the Deep South Blacks support “gay rights,” it seems.
Well said.
Thanks; libs pretend blacks ARE getting an education (spending far more than on “white” districts), but as the political arm of the teachers’ unions the Democrats will never allow meaningful education reform to pass.
Work-wise blacks have been betrayed by an elite that would rather deal with complacent foreign burros than actually work with most blacks.
Families are simply too “Judeo-Christian” for libs to embrace.
Does this IDIOT actually believe that a white person has “immunity” from getting shot down if he attacks a police officer???
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