Pat Buchanan rebuffs hypocrite O'Reilly

www.wnd.com ^ | May 26, 2003 | Patrick J Buchanan

[oldconservative]

This spring, white students at Johnson County High in Wrightsville, Ga., continued a tradition they have followed since desegregation. They held a prom separate from the school prom – for white students only. As did the juniors at neighboring Taylor County High.

News of the separate proms reached Bill O'Reilly at Fox News, who angrily demanded that Gov. Sonny Perdue attend the official Taylor County prom in protest. As columnist Sam Francis writes, O'Reilly seemed miffed that there was no law or authority to stop this outrage:

"You can't sue because the event is being held off-campus. It's a private party, and no person of color is welcome. Yet, the party is being held under the banner of Taylor High's junior prom. Yes, there is an alternative prom where everyone is welcome, but still a number of your classmates do not want to celebrate with you."

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, law student Jeffrey Shapiro seemed even more indignant: "It's hard to imagine that the practice of segregation still exists in the United States, but it does," Shapiro states. "Authorities are powerless to intervene."

Yes, and a good thing they cannot intervene, Jeffrey. For if this country is about anything, it is freedom. And just as the Bill of Rights prevents the state from interfering with what Shapiro or O'Reilly writes or says, the Constitution protects the freedom of school kids in Taylor County, Ga., to associate with whomever they wish

When O'Reilly says that an all-white prom appears to be a snub of black schoolmates, he may be right. But it may also mean the white kids simply prefer to party together. As for Shapiro's assertion that "segregated proms" are one of "the worst public displays of racism in today's America," that is absurd.

The ugliest manifestations of racism today are not all-white proms, but interracial crimes such as gang assaults, gang shootings and gang rapes.

As this term racist is tossed about, perhaps it is time to define it. To this writer, racism means a hatred or hostility toward some other race that manifests itself in a desire to deny the other justice.

What O'Reilly and Shapiro are upset about is something else altogether. For there is no evidence the white kids of Taylor County hate all their black classmates. A preference for socializing with one's own is not hatred. CYO dances used to be restricted to baptized Catholics. That didn't mean the priests and nuns hated all non-Catholics. The same is true for the Newman clubs and Hillel houses on college campuses. These clubs represent the desire of a group to socialize together. This is not racism. It is natural and normal, and there is nothing morally reprehensible about it.

As for the new separatism or self-segregation in schools, this appears to be more the wish of black students than of whites. Here, for example, is Washington Post writer Michael Fletcher describing the graduation events at Penn:

"The presentation of the class of 2003 was the central event at this year's Black Senior Celebration. The ceremony here, attended by almost half of the university's 140 black graduating seniors, followed separate celebrations that honored Asian American and Latino seniors in the weeks leading up to Penn's general graduation ceremony today. University officials say these racially and ethnically themed ceremonies are a way for minority students to celebrate their cultural connections."

If it is acceptable for black students in the Ivy League to hold segregated ceremonies to celebrate their "cultural connections," why is O'Reilly beating up on white high-school kids in rural Georgia for doing the same thing?

Vanderbilt, Michigan State, Michigan, Stanford and Berkeley all host separate ceremonies for black graduates. Across America, writes Fletcher, there are black "fraternities, sororities and culture centers." Black students "study in separate groups, they eat at segregated dining tables, and they unwind at separate parties."

Does this mean black students hate their white classmates? Of course not. They simply prefer to socialize with one another.

At Penn, the university even pays for the kente cloths and the sumptuous banquet at the graduation ceremony at the black student center Makuu. In Johnson and Taylor counties, parents pay for the white proms.

Again the question reasserts itself: If it is perfectly acceptable for black, Asian and Hispanic students to have separate dorms and cultural centers in college, subsidized by tax dollars, why is it an outrage that white high-school kids in rural Georgia have their own prom, paid for by their own parents? Whatever did these white folks do to lose the right to equal respect and equal treatment?

[F16Fighter]

"This demonstrates to me beyond a shadow of doubt that Buchanen hates both Jews and Blacks, and probably gypsies and slovaks as well."

You forgot midgets and troglodytes...

"Segregation is the heart of racism."

Then kindly contact BET, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the thousands of "Black" Associations, Clubs, and entities to inform them of your profound understanding of "racially based" segregation.

[george wythe]

Each year, during the weeks leading up to graduation at Johnson County High School, white students go to a white prom and black students go to a black one.

"It's always been like that," said senior Carla Rachels, 17, who helped organize Friday night's white prom in nearby Dublin. "We don't see it as being a big deal."

[snip]

No one seems to remember when the rule was passed to keep the school's hands off the prom.

Older residents recall that the white prom was indeed school-sponsored in the days before public schools were integrated in the late 1960s.

[snip]

Rev. Horton, believes the young people are simply bowing to the opinions of their elders.

"It ain't so much the young folks. It's the old folks that still got that meanness and hate in them," he said.

Horton offers first-hand testimony about how bitter racial tension can be in Johnson County. In 1980, Wrightsville gained national notoriety when a group of whites, including sheriff's deputies, attacked blacks during a civil-rights demonstration. Horton was there.

"I got beat to the ground," he said. His car was stripped and shoved into a pond. He spent three nights in jail. No one was ever prosecuted.

source

[fat city]

After he ran this story into the ground, I realized that O'Reilly's motivation is not about political integrity but about self-promotion. He stands for nothing and this non-story is his "Al Capone's Vault".

[george wythe]

It's not racist or immoral to have white proms that exclude black people because:

Everybody does it (Northerners are as racists are Southerners)

Two wrongs make one right (Blacks are allowed to have black grad ceremoniess)

False analogies (Never been to a party where all the people were white?)

Strawman (You want the government to intervene. The US Constitution allows freedom of association)

Appeal to sympathy (The media just loves to pick on Southerners).

Appeal to tradition (That’s the way it’s always been)

[overlord]

Segregation remains in much of American culture, not only because whites want it, but also because minorities chose to structure their communities in a way to utilize it for their own advantage. It is not a healthy sign in either case. We are not so far from the days of segregated bus stations, public facilities, schools, etc. that we shouldn't be alert to the cost of it. "Associating with our own" is the way whites justify it, "promoting diversity" is the favorite catchword of minorities. Both are free to conduct themselves in this way, so long as they do not restrict the rights of others. That is the real risk they run. It is fair for people to be concerned about this for the welfare of our nation, and to be alert about what point we cross that line.

I don't know if there is any one place where that happens, but it is worth our effort to be critical at times and be willing to ask each other the hard questions we need to, so we can determine the true motivations and the impact of decisions on others.

It is fair to raise concerns about inconsistencies in the discussion. Why is it okay for minorities to do it, but not whites? The replies may help us to get to the bottom of some longstanding divisions and put them on the table. It is important that public institutions such as schools, etc. actively work to provide models that promote unity, as well as individualism. In this the prom seems to fall short. It may be legal, but it sure doen't seem right for the kids. What will they learn from this?

[HatSteel]

I said that I accept freedom of association but that pretending this was not segregation is to lie to oneself.

So...WHOEVER does it is behaving in a racial way, imho. Of course, there must a going out of one's way to exclude based on race rather than just a family get-together for a backyard picnic.

If the family is all white and they get together with themselves, THAT is not segregation. That's congregation. If the church is all white simply through free choice and they get together with themselves, that is not segregation. That's congregation.

If the family (or church) has black members and the white members exclude them because of "unacceptance", then that is segregation, and in the long run it will injure some family/church member.

Fairly easy to see with families/churches.

[HatSteel]

see #67. I think some of your assumptions from my original post are invalid.

Segregation does cut both ways. Free Association is a right (which I did say.)

There you have it.

[Jhoffa_]

..and in the long run it will injure some family/church member.

?

[HatSteel]

What is your question?

[Jhoffa_]

Each year, during the weeks leading up to graduation at Johnson County High School, white students go to a white prom and black students go to a black one.

So the blacks are horrible racists also..

Where's O'Reilly on that I wonder?

[Jhoffa_]

I was hoping you would expand on your comment a bit for me..

[george wythe]

I was just summarizing the logical fallacies on these whites-only-prom threads.

In other words, I do not agree with the arguments I posted.

[666beast]

bump for Pat Buchanan.

he would've made a great president.

[oldironsides]

The black students at one university in South Carolina wanted their own student union. I wonder if they got it?

[AlbionGirl]

but it's utterly stupid and lacking in redeeming features.

Now that's something pitch-fork proddin', radioactive writin', Pat would get.

He's the hypocrite of first order, not Bill O'Reilly. Note to Pat: you were entombed a long time ago. You're on the same wavelength as the LF. You won't work, it won't work. But keep treading in those murky waters Pat, your redemption lies at the bottom.

[HatSteel]

I was using a family and/or church as an example. If that family or church has both black and white members, then to intentionally exclude one or the other from a family gathering would be "segregation." To unintentionally exclude is not segregation.

[Jhoffa_]

I agree with that..

I was wondering about the "injury" part.

How does that happen?

[HatSteel]

Sorry. I see that now that I reread your post. Thanks for pointing out MY assumptions.

[The_Pickle]

To affirm the right of "association" is fine. But to claim that this white prom was not racially based is absurd. Segregation is the heart of racism. And I hate it for the way it twists the minds of our young.

I happen to agree with you but, if you are going to hold up "white only" functions as racist then you need to clarify that "all" racially segregated functions and clubs are just as racist.

If you are willing to do so you will show yourself to be a truly compassionate conservative however, if you start spouting off nonsense about "cultural events and organizations" you will show yourself to be yet another Liberal bigot that thinks only "white" people can be racists.

At the risk of sounding cliche' "whats good for the goose is good for the gander" and when people wander in here condeming "white only" functions a racist and call Black,Hispanic, Oriental or other ethnically segragated functions and clubs "cultural in nature" I have to question their true commitment to ending racism.