Posted on 07/04/2011 11:24:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
On this Fourth of July there is a topic I want to confront. I thought long and hard before writing this column, even though the topic is a subject that profoundly concerns me. While my words come from the heart, I was, frankly, fearful that I would be branded a racist. Regrettably, the racial environment that now exists in America leaves anyone who is not Black open to attack regardless of one’s history of support for members of the community – just consider Al Campanis. Nevertheless, here goes – The Black community needs to throw off the yoke of their self-anointed leaders, their current crop of elected officials, and their supposed friends in the Democratic Party if they ever wish to achieve equal economic status in this country.
This conclusion became clear to me in a rather roundabout manner. In 2004, I traveled to Portland, Oregon. It was my first visit to this lovely city, and I spent three wonderful weeks there. But coming from Los Angeles, I was surprised by the relative absence of minorities: you see very few Asians and hardly any Blacks or Hispanics. If you go to the ‘Burbs, forget it – they’re as white as white can be. Here I was in hyper-liberal Portland, the city that almost single-handedly elects Democrats in statewide elections, and it did not appear to be particularly minority-friendly. I thought: How easy it is for these liberals to pass judgment on other Americans when they don’t have to face the issues that the rest of us deal with every day.
This notion hibernated in the back of my mind until I read Thomas Sowell’s recent column, “Blacks and Republicans.” Dr. Sowell described how Blacks had been driven out of San Francisco because of housing prices, and how Blacks are nowhere to be found in the 40 miles of suburbs that stretch from San Francisco down to Silicon Valley. These are some of the richest and most liberal areas in the country.
Portland and San Francisco, two hyper-liberal areas, elect politicians who preach about equality and regularly vote for programs that are aimed at “helping” the poor, but it appears as though they just want to keep the problems and pathologies of poverty away from themselves and their constituents. People are far more likely to responsibly address and resolve challenges when they are actually confronted by them.
Then there is the Congressional Black Caucus, a group which views every tax as needing to be raised and every government program as one worth expanding – except, of course, that which empowers parents by letting them choose where to educate their children. They were in lockstep with the union-owned Democrats who shut down the highly successful school-choice program serving the Black community in Washington, D.C. A white Republican (John Boehner) had to negotiate to resurrect the program – which liberated Black parents from the dreadful public school system that continues to destroy the future of thousands of poor children who live inside the District.
These leaders and “friends” of the Black community continue to insist that African-Americans need to be beneficiaries of government largesse instead of creating their own economic opportunities and support systems. Government money functions as an opiate meant to pacify generations of Blacks unable – principally because of third-rate education – to create their own livings. The vultures who are more interested in perpetuating their own positions than actually improving the community then prey on the carcasses of the beaten souls, offering them more government money instead of actual freedom.
There are signs of hope. The last election had 14 Black Americans running for Congress as Republicans. Two of them, Tim Scott and Allen West, were the first Black Republicans elected to Congress since the retirement of J. C. Watts a decade ago. The census showed a major migration of Black Americans from the cities in the North, where they were treated as wards of the government, to places where there is greater opportunity. And spurred by films such as “Waiting for Superman,” more Black parents are standing up against the Democrat/Education establishment that produces thousands of barely-literate children with a bleak future – if they graduate at all.
We can help in small ways, such as spurring new voices in the Black Community and contributing to their campaigns. Black people need their own role models and success stories. They need more people fighting the forces that pretend to help while actually limiting their future. America will never achieve its full mission until the Black Community has reached an equal economic footing. The only thing that is clear is that the status quo – the result of 50 years of poor decisions and blind devotion to liberal dogma – is not the path to that success.
It may happen someday but it will be a long row to hoe.
limousine liberals
My MIL was a rabid Democrat.
However, when I allowed a black Stanley Steemer man to use my bathroom, she informed me “That isn’t done.” I said “What is he supposed to do?” she said he could go to a filling station.............So much for practicing what she preached.
Typical lib.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright lives in a million dollar home in a white enclave. “Black flight”.
Yep, some of the white liberals live in areas which have few minority residents.
If they value diversity so much, why don’t they go live in ethnically mixed areas, or to prove how liberal they are, go live in a majority black area?
Why did Bill Clinton get praise for having his office in Harlem? The mansion he and Hillary bought is in an exclusive suburb of New York. Why don’t good liberals get condemned for avoiding minorities and big city problems in general, when they choose to live in such places?
This guy just figured out that leftists are racial hypocrites? Where’s he been?
Get back to me when they vote 90% Republican.
Well that’s racist!!
Very good and on the mark article!!! IMHO, Black Americans hold their own destiny in their own hands. The Obama’s, the NAACPs, the CBCs do very little to nothing for Blacks, other then to make them slaves of the Democrat Party and keep them down and chained in economic slavery!!! Slowly, through intermarriage, self driven ambition, desire to succeed, more and more Blacks are beginning to get it. Herman Cain, Alan West, Walter Williams, etc., are just the very tip of a budding and building iceberg of Blacks that follow the words of MLK regarding character, color and determination to be both equal & free. Blacks best wake up and broom the Obama, NAACP, CBC, etc. types and get with program of freedom, equality, acceptance and success in oth business and life itself!!!!!!
I am amazed the GOP has not taken a more aggressive effort at re-establishing roots in our African-American community. Most of the current difficulties they endure can be directly traced back to the nanny-state of the “Great Society”, and we are now far enough removed from its beginnings to credibly show the damage these policies have caused.
I wouldn’t mind hearing about it when they vote FIFTY PERCENT Republican!
Well it is a well known fact that the rats are hypocrites. Your MIL, without a doubt, just proved it again
Stories of the Black Founders which Beck portrayed on his program are also getting around.
Ya. About 40 years late to the party. Oh well, better late than never.
I think you’ve just clearly defined the problem for me. The Black Caucus’ battle has been with rich democrats who desires to segregate on the basis of race. Yet their fight has been misdirected in going after republicans.
Mega-crook Al Sharpton also lives in a white enclave.
Liberalism is the cornerstone of racism in the US. Liberals maintain a chattel system of black subservience by erecting economic and political walls against upward mobility for black constituents. Liberalism has created absolute dependence of blacks on government. It is literally illegal for a welfare dependent to wean themselves from the public dole.
This system of government dependence is advanced by such programs as Social Security, Medicaire and Medicaid, WIC, Food Stamps, Section 8, and more. Now with Universal Health Care the government has absolute control of every citizen’s health. All these programs are touted as benefits but they are anything but. They destroy the incentive for personal responsibility and, perhaps more importantly, they supplant private sector assistance programs with one size fits all bureaucracies.
The democrat party has always enslaved the blacks.
People forget that the KKK was the para-military enforcement arm of the democrat party.
Obama is just a Judas Goat, whose first step in office was to end the voucher system for poor District of Columbia students to attend his daughters’ exclusive private school.
No one has suffered more from the evil Obama-Reid-Pelosi Regime’s War on the American Economy than blacks.
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