Posted on 09/11/2003 8:40:13 PM PDT by familyop
America's Racists
September 10, 2003
by Burt Prelutsky
Two seemingly unrelated thoughts keep running through my brain, and I'm wondering if there is a connection that my subconscious is trying to make.
The first of these notions is that most of the racists in America are black, and that until we all recognize and acknowledge this fact, we're not going to get anywhere so far as resolving the race question. For, way too often when blacks insist they want to have a dialogue with whites, what they really mean is that they get a free pass to bitch and moan and demand reparations for things done to people they never knew by people none of us ever knew!
The second notion is that in any conflict between people, in order to know which side to root for, you only need to know which leader insists on donning a uniform every chance he gets.
Now, regarding the first issue, I'm aware that there are those -- mainly blacks and patronizing white liberals -- who insist that only those in the majority, those who have power, those, in short, who govern, can ever be labeled racists. That is totally absurd. By that standard, not the Aryan Brotherhood and not even the Ku Klux Klan -- neither of which can boast of power, numbers or influence -- could ever be condemned as racist.
What we do have in this country is a hypocritical double standard. On the one hand, movie director Spike Lee's career rolls merrily along in spite of his saying that he so hates bi-racial couples that he stares daggers at them if he encounters them on the street; and Jesse Jackson, who has raised corporate extortion to an art form, can not only get away with calling New York City "Hymietown," but with admitting that when he hears a group of young guys walking behind him at night, he's relieved to find they're white and not black.
I dare you to show me a single high-profile Caucasian who could survive such gaffes. You can't. But I can readily point to Sen. Trent Lott and the late baseball executive Al Campanis, who had their lives wrecked because of a couple of ill-chosen remarks. In Campanis's case, any number of black athletes came forward to defend him as a decent man and a loyal friend, but nothing could save him from falling victim to America's double standard.
People such as Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, and Johnnie Cochran, who have made careers out of race-baiting, are esteemed in the black community. But I can't think of a single white racist who has enjoyed success and esteem among white Americans. Only blacks are permitted, even encouraged, to view all issues and, worse yet, all people in terms of black and white.
There are, I will readily admit, things that should be regarded that way. Good and evil, for instance, come to mind. Which brings us back to the matter of uniforms. When it comes to national leaders, one should always be wary of siding with the guy out of mufti. Whether his name is Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Castro, Idi Amin, Yasir Arafat, or Saddam Hussein, bloody tyrants enjoy nothing better than an excuse to slap on the medals and dress up like a toy soldier. In a democracy, even when ex-generals assume high office -- men such as George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower -- they put their uniforms in mothballs. The lone exception who comes to mind is Charles de Gaulle. But, then, he was French. So, what else would you expect?
Come to think of it, perhaps the message my subconscious was trying so hard to communicate was that, sadly, so far as black racists are concerned, skin color is the same as a uniform.
Burt Prelutsky
Burt Prelutsky
Burt Prelutsky has been a humor columnist for the L.A. Times and the movie critic for Los Angeles Magazine. In addition to freelancing for everything from the N.Y. Times and TV Guide to Playgirl and Sports Illustrated, he has written several award-winning TV movies, along with episodes of Dragnet, McMillan & Wife, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Rhoda, Family Ties, Dr. Quinn and Diagnosis Murder. Visit his website at http://BurtPrelutsky.com.
I bet this guy is NEVER published again in the above mentioned papers...
The problem is that so many whites con themselves into believing that they have to apologize. Virtually every American, walking alone on a dark street, would be relieved to see that the group of young men coming along behind him were white rather than black. No man of integrity would apologize for his well reasoned opinion.
To deny blacks the responsibility for their own racism is to deny them their humanity. I'm unwilling to do that. Instead, I'd urge them to clean up their act.
This folks is clearly an assault and attack on every single American. Remember, other states to have attempted to legalized these criminals.
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It's interesting to consider that the only morally culpable beings are white men. The rest - at least to the liberal mind - do not make moral choices at all. They are Pavlovian, hence not fully human.
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