Posted on 06/24/2020 3:06:50 AM PDT by Kaslin
Many whites are ashamed, saddened and feel guilty about our history of slavery, Jim Crow and gross racial discrimination. Many black people remain angry over the injustices of the past and what they see as injustices of the present. Both blacks and whites can benefit from a better appreciation of black history.
Often overlooked or ignored is the fact that, as a group, black Americans have made the greatest gains, over some of the highest hurdles, and in a shorter span of time than any other racial group in history.
For example, if one totaled up the earnings and spending of black Americans and considered us as a separate nation with our own gross domestic product, we would rank well within the top 20 richest nations. A black American, Gen. Colin Powell, once headed the world's mightiest military. Black Americans are among the world's most famous personalities, and a few black Americans are among the world's richest people such as investor Robert F. Smith, IT service provider David Steward, Oprah Winfrey, and basketball star Michael Jordan. Plus, there was a black U.S. president.
The significance of these achievements cannot be overstated. When the Civil War ended, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have believed such progress would be possible in less than a century and a half -- if ever. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just as important, it speaks to the greatness of a nation in which such gains were possible. Nowhere else on earth could such progress been achieved except in the United States of America.
The issue that confronts us is how these gains can be extended to about one-quarter of the black population for whom they have proven elusive. The first step is to acknowledge that the civil rights struggle is over and won. At one time, black Americans did not enjoy the constitutional guarantees as everyone else. Now we do. While no one can deny the existence of residual racial discrimination, racial discrimination is not the major problem confronting a large segment of the black community.
A major problem is that some public and private policies reward dependency and irresponsibility. Chief among these policies is the welfare state that has fostered a 75% rate of out of wedlock births and decimated the black family that had survived Jim Crow and racism. Keep in mind that in 1940 the black illegitimacy rate was 11% and most black children were raised in two-parent families. Most poverty, about 25%, is found in female-headed households. The poverty rate among husband-and-wife black families has been in the single digits for more than two decades.
Black people can be thankful that double standards and public and private policies rewarding inferiority and irresponsibility were not a part of the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s. If there were, then there would not have been the kind of intellectual excellence and spiritual courage that created the world's most successful civil rights movement. From the late 1800s to 1950, some black schools were models of academic achievement. Black students at Washington's Dunbar High School often outscored white students as early as 1899. Schools such as Frederick Douglass (Baltimore), Booker T. Washington (Atlanta), P.S. 91 (Brooklyn), McDonogh 35 (New Orleans) and others operated at a similar level of excellence.
Self-destructive behavior that has become acceptable, particularly that in predominantly black schools, is nothing less than a gross betrayal of a struggle, paid with blood, sweat and tears by previous generations, to make possible today's educational opportunities that are being routinely squandered. I guarantee that blacks who lived through that struggle and are no longer with us would not have believed such a betrayal possible.
Government should do its job of protecting constitutional rights. After that, black people should be simply left alone as opposed to being smothered by the paternalism inspired by white guilt. On that note, I just cannot resist the temptation to refer readers to my "Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon," which grants Americans of European ancestry amnesty and pardon for their own grievances and those of their forebears against my people so that they stop feeling guilty and stop acting like fools in their relationship with Americans of African ancestry.
Will removing Confederate emblems from flags, toppling statues of white American historical figures, and eliminating Aunt Jemima's face from our grocery store shelves do a damned thing to make a single black person's life better in the U.S. today?
The problem is that certain members of the Black community are poisoning the well for the rest.
White people are not spontaneously smothering Blacks out of White guilt, they are being set up to do so by those Blacks who hope to gain from it.
And while I am at it, systemic racism cannot be removed by edict or law or demand anymore than one can demand that people like you or respect you.
:: systemic racism cannot be removed by edict or law or demand ::
Especially when it is a State sponsored myth, made from whole-cloth.
I used to work at our Holiday Inn when I was younger, and I told one of my co-workers that I liked the character of Aunt Jemima. You should have heard that bitch. She cussed me out and acted like I said a racist remark, but the way I saw the character of Jemima was like a grandmother who was comforting a grandchild.
What the hell is white guilt? Another made up term by wackos!
Worth the time to read.
“Many whites are ashamed, saddened and feel guilty about our history of slavery, Jim Crow and gross racial discrimination.”
I’m not one of them. I do not condone cruel and unusual punishment such as slavery. However I am not ashamed of something that ended over a hundred years ago when White soldiers put an end to it. At that time my ancestors were living in Canada and Germany and had nothing to do with holding black slaves. Considering my first Canadian ancestor married into one of the tribes, I doubt if they even killed Indians. The state I live in was a territory back then.
Anyone that is easily convinced to feel ashamed, sad or guilty over something they had absolutely nothing to do with are complete total effing NUT JOBS!
Blah blah blah. Then everyone in whole world should feel the same way as slavery has existed within all people and in all countries.
I don't feel guilty or ashamed of our history.
My problem today is the "guilt" thing, sorry not there. As many of you have said.
I just wonder, if one totaled up the earnings and spending of black Americans, does that include all the benefits from welfare and other public assistance?
Another great Walter William’s piece. By the way, has the left yet set a date for this “conversation”? All I’ve heard so far is one-sided, endless screeching of tiny slices of life, not any acknowledgement of big picture realities. Thank you Mr. W.
Neither do I. What I can’t figure out is why the period of American black slavery is treated as something historically unique, uniquely wicked too, when slavery is a historical episode from one end to the other, including the present. And for that matter, the American Civil War is the only time which comes to mind when one tribe of people shed their blood at least partly for the benefit of another tribe’s freedom-why is that never mentioned? They’ve already received reparations in something more precious than money-the blood of other people. Nevermind the millions and millions in entitlements in money and in kind of one sort or another since then.
Ghenghis Khan and the Mongols were more cruel than American slavery, why would not the descendants of their victims be entitled to “reparations “? (Not that I want to give anyone ideas)
“White people are not spontaneously smothering Blacks out of White guilt, they are being set up to do so by those Blacks who hope to gain from it.”
They need to watch out, logical whites do not feel shame or guilt for things that happened in the past and over which they have no control. They also are growing tired of hearing about absurdity such as “white privilege” which does not exist in reality at this time although some of us are old enough to remember when it did exist. People who live in the real world are sick and tired of hearing about “systemic racism” which does not exist except as it exists to favor NONwhites over whites. There is a time to take your marbles and go home and that time is nearing for BLM and antifa. Intelligent nonwhite people are not on the side of anarchy.
“Many whites are ashamed, saddened and feel guilty about our history of slavery,”
Yes, unfortunately there really are quite a few pathetically stupid white people.
PING!
So brilliant.
If only Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell had been our first black president!
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