Posted on 06/02/2002 12:36:57 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
It might be easier if all racists were like Bobby Frank Cherry: easily identified, cartoon character good old boys. It might be simpler if all racism manifested itself in violent, clumsy ways. But like any virus, in order to survive, racism adapts to its conditions. These complex times call for a more subtle approach. Today, some racists wear suits and ties, run big bureaucracies or work in government and private corporations. Some are those who have declared racism dead, that the playing field has been leveled, and that affirmative action unnecessary and in itself racist.
Today’s racists are those who willfully ignore the existence of both discrimination against African Americans and their own white privilege. They are those who insist that all they have is due to hard work, while all that other, less fortunate members of society lack is a result of their own ineptitude. Like Cherry, today’s racists take lives and livelihoods, crush spirits, and then blame the victim. I’m pleased that Bobby Frank Cherry will spend the rest of his days in prison, but his conviction won’t bring those four girls back. And racism still is not dead. That can only happen when Americans recognize the entrenched system of white privilege that disenfranchises not only black Americans, but all people of color, not only here, but around the world, and work to dismantle it.
Quite probably this is so. But I refuse to quit, as I have no desire to live in Greater Mexico, nor see my East-Coast relatives living in a UN protectorate.
I refuse to bend the truth in order to gain the friendship of liars, cowards and ignoramuses.
I never said you should bend the truth. Nor should you desire the friendship of liars and cowards.
Ignoramuses are another matter, however. Thanks to Publik Skoolz and uncaring parents, many people nowadays have grown up ignorant through no fault of their own. Somehow these people need to be reached.
And, however much you may dislike it, the Confederacy was indeed *WRONG* about one key issue, the issue that matters most to blacks. For this reason, any implication that the Confederacy has any validity, will cause them to CLOSE THEIR EARS to you immediately and permanently, and they'll never hear anything else you have to say. Somewhere in the bible, it speaks of how "the tongue of the wise makes the truth acceptable" (can't remember the KJV equivalent, sorry). Speaking the truth in a way that it will be heard is not the same as lying.
But it really boils down to what is more important to you -- the past or the future. If the issue is Confederate honor, go ahead and uphold Confederate honor to the bitter end, which will come soon. If the issue is liberty for our descendants, then teach the truths of liberty without shackling them to the ball-and-chain of slavery. Because, like it or not, slavery is the meaning of the Confederacy in the minds of many, and will always be so.
Tell ya what -- go ask 10 black Christian conservatives (if you can find that many) to read this. I'll accept their judgement.
flyingmuslim F RTR List.
Actually, the Confederacy was on the wrong side of the courtship/dating debate. Northern carpetbaggers promoted a book called "Ah Kiyussed Daaayyting Good-Bah", and pushed a strict courtship rule in an attempt to prevent Southerners from marrying. Fortunately, this attempt at genocide failed. /humor>
Seriously.... As you knew perfectly well, I was speaking of the PAST issues, not the present ones. And we all know that the issues of the past, relating to the Confederacy, are slavery, state's rights, and related concerns. And that, as far as blacks are concerned, slavery was THE issue for the Confederacy, and all talk of state's rights and limits to federal power in that context, is perceived by them as a cloak for slavery.
You know as well as I do, that the issues you listed, simply didn't exist back then... and that if we could send our present-day welfarites, drug dealers, and violent gang members back through a time machine to 1860, the Yankees and the Confederates of that era would have both agreed on hanging for the street gangs, whippings for the welfarites, etc. Drugs, however, were legal then. (Speaking of time machines, you might enjoy, The Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove.)
Truly, I respect Confederates. I think that the South has a lot to offer America, if America would only listen. But many Americans have been vaccinated against hearing what you have to say, because of the slavery thing -- even though Southern slaveowers were often far less "racist" than the hypocritical North. All the other good things about the Confederacy could gain a much wider audience, if only you'd promote them as American values (which they truly are) rather than Confederate ones.
BCD: Assuming that you reside in what is currently the Southwest United States, how to you propose to avoid that fate?
By promoting Biblical values among everyone. People of any ethnicity who understand the spiritual reasons WHY America is so free and prosperous, are less likely to turn against it. I'm learning Spanish (from Christian Guatemalan coworkers) for just that reason. Also, I won't using any contraception. And just in case all else fails, I'll be sure all my kids know how to shoot. Tell me -- How do you propose to keep the East from becoming a European-dominated UN/EEC client state?
And since I and my ancestors are the ones whom you seem to be accusing of racism...
First of all, I specifically AVOIDED accusing you of racism. I really DON'T think you are a racist. But, this is my point: When you stick up for the Confederacy, you LOOK like a racist, in the eyes of many people, and they'l tune you out thereafter. And that's a shame because you have a lot of good things to say.
could I ask what you find objectionable to being ruled by the apparently inevitable Mexican majority in your neck of the woods?
Simple: The Mexican government protects far fewer rights than does the American government. Although, as our rights are further eroded, perhaps that may change. I remember remarking in the fall of 2000, that I trust Vincente Fox a lot more than I trust Al Gore. If things get bad enough, if Mexico become the lesser of 2 evils, at that point perhaps I too will become a Secessionist, and may even support "La Reconquista".
And people think I'm nuts when I tell them my grandfather fought in WW I (I'm 34).
They were circa WW II.
I have a little sister who's 28, and I bet she's one of the youngest granddaughters of WW I vets around.
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