Posted on 08/24/2005 1:11:45 AM PDT by Crackingham
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, says "the destruction of the black family" today can be traced to a single man from England who purposely paid a visit to Virginia during the early 18th century.
"In 1712, British slave owner Willie Lynch was invited to the colony of Virginia to teach his methods of keeping slaves under control to American slave owners," Rangel says. "Almost 300 years later, the techniques that he prescribed seem to have not only been successful in controlling slaves, but lasting as a means of weakening and destroying the black family."
Rangel explains that in slavery, "families were purposely divided, with husband and wives separated from each other and their children. Black males were humiliated and whipped in front of their wives and children. Stripped of their power and pride, black men were seen as weak, and black women had to be the strength of the household, distorting the traditional family structure."
As it turns out, however, the "Willie Lynch" cited by Rangel in the preceding item is an urban legend based on a document widely circulated via the Internet in recent years. "There are many problems with this document - not the least of which is the fact that it is absolutely fake," explains Jelani Cobb, a professor of history at Atlanta's Spelman College.
"In the few years since the speech on how to train slaves first appeared, it has been cited by countless college students, a black member of the House of Representatives and become the essential verbal footnote in barbershop analysis of what's wrong with black people," the historian writes on his Web site.
Detailing evidence of the Lynch letter's falsehood, Cobb notes that this document was unknown to historians before its appearance on the Web: "Considering the limited number of extant sources from the 18th century, if this speech had been 'discovered' it would've been the subject of incessant historical panels, scholarly articles and debates. It would literally be a career-making find. But the letter was never 'discovered,' but rather it 'appeared' - bypassing the official historical circuits and making its way via Internet directly into the canon of American racial (conspiracy theories)."
"British slave owner Willie Lynch was invited to the colony "
Willie Lynch. LOL. If they were going to make up a name why not try to be a little less obvious? Like ahh..Whitey Diablo..or Cracka Massah or something.
Just more evidence Rangel is a race-baiting hatemonger who doesn't care about the facts.
In other news: the destruction of the black family has been traced to the poisonous Democrat policy of subsidising single motherhood so much that poor dual-parent families are an endangered species. Not to mention the equally poisonous Democrat policy of race-baiting and fostering a climate of race-entitlement.
It's too hard for him to see the intact black families from the 40s and 50s so he has to go back, way back 300 years and use a fake document at that.
Maybe if he told the truth it would be bad news for the D-rats and social programs.
Democrat LBJ destroyed the Negro family structure with his Great Society.
The Great Society also bonded the Negroes to Big Government with chains of dependency.
As if there is a solid family structure in East Africa.
I have sen Thomas Sowell speak on this subject many times, remembering growing up in Harlem in the 50s and how well the Black family was doing pre-Civil Rights Act/Great Society. A more rational look at the Black Family was also offered by a Black boss I had in Atlanta in 1982; he was in his 60s and said that in his opinion the community was more stable when successful Black families lived in the Black community and didn't depart for the upscale White neighbourhoods the minute they made good.
Rangel blames the current condition of blacks on one man. And it turns out that man didn't exist. He was going to Twana Brawley someone else. LOLOL
charlie Rangel-- Isn't his that VP sucking up to that Castro clone that boasts he will be around longer than
the American One dollar bill -or our twice elected President?He has no more standing as an American that bozo that shares his name and bluster.
Blacks who listen to black leaders and selfish black men are destroying the black families I see.
Charles Rangel should know that the black American family from 1865 to about 1965 was more nuclear and more stable than white American family. But after 1965 the black American nuclear family disintegrated because black males deserted their families in great numbers and many black women simply had no need for men. What (and who) replaced black men in black American families?
The what is "The Great Society" and its social welfare programs. The who is Lyndon Baines Johnson.
If Charles Rangel is looking for a scapegoat -- other than himself for not speaking out against the disintegration of black American families -- he can blame LBJ and the Democrats who gave us "The Great Society" and all the sins it produced.
Are the original 18th century documents that record Mr. Lynch's speech in Times New Roman or Arial font?
Seriously, there's probably some truth in the assertion regardless of the facts. Slavery was a great evil which has had lasting effect. The Democrat Party's Great Society programs, however, are much more recent and are more closely linked to the replacement of the nuclear family with dysfunctional substitutes. The Democrat Party's more recent embrace of feminism and gay rights has led it to reject the nuclear family as the normative model for raising children. The more recent rejection of the nuclear family as the normative model for raising children, and welfare and taxation disincentives to nuclear family formation would seem much more closely connected with the trends in African-American family formation.
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