Civil Rights and the Collapse of Birmingham, Ala.

Birmingham, Alabama is considered by many to be the birthplace of the civil rights movement. Today, African-Americans in Birmingham benefit from a numerical majority in the population, corresponding majorities in government jobs, and political control of the city. But civil rights won't address what ails the city now.

Birmingham is recognized as one of the most violent and poorly-run cities in the nation. The city runs a massive deficit, and is county seat of Jefferson County, which recently cut a deal with a European bank as part of the largest government bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Underlying this fiasco is a mixture of problems, none of which can be solved by the civil rights agenda, or by liberalism in any form. This is not to suggest that those rights should be rolled back, but to point out that today's solutions will not come from civil rights.

Blacks in Birmingham have now obtained equal rights, special protection for those rights, preferential enforcement of those rights, a demographic majority, and a near monopoly on government employment. Moreover, that panoply of rights and benefits is funded by the nation's highest sales tax. The results should be a progressive success story. Instead, Jefferson County's bankruptcy stemms in part from an epic and at times grimly amusing corruption scandal that resulted in the conviction of at least 22 people. Those convicted officials include the former mayor of Birmingham, Larry Langford.

...There is always a "trap" -- always someone else to blame. That resolute avoidance of personal responsibility, writ large, must be a major part of the city's problems. But such cultural and moral concerns are not part of the current civil rights agenda. Much more important was a program through which Mayor Langford provided laptops to children, in all government schools, in first through fifth grade.

Decades of preferences, affirmative action, reparations, minority set-asides and White Guilt still haven’t solved the problem.

No liberal solution will solve the problem. Liberal actions caused the problem.

Self-inflicted pathologies can not be corrected by blaming someone else.

“Silly person, blacks can’t be racist…”

That’s the essence of it.

This came to pass with the passage of one of the single most destructive American laws ever written — the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Right out of Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, the CRA created a new protected and privileged class of individuals. A racial group instantly presumed to be “discriminated against”, regardless of whether such discrimination actually occurred or not.

The CRA, ostensibly passed to “end” discrimination, instead institutionalized it and created an entire industry to assist the presumed victims of same. Those of the new protected class are instantly awarded benefits and privileges over “ordinary”, “non-protected” Americans.

The “discrim-industry” rolls on today as it has for decades. What do you need to get on board that train? Easy: just be of a certain ethnic group…

For the last fifty years, it has been the official policy of the United States to teach blacks from the very first years that they enter the school system that they are “victims” of “discrimination” by the whites. By the time these kids grow into their teens, what else is there for them to know?

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