The question is asked seriously.
I came to the United States in 1952. At that time this was a segregated country. Discrimination based on race was something I could not understand nor had ever experienced. I lived, once adopted, in a quiet quasi-southern town where I saw firsthand the invidious nature of rank bigotry and racism. My father managed two movie theaters, one in the white part of town and one in the black. One time he took me to his office at the white theater and then to the one in the black theater. The makeup of the audiences was in stark contrast to each other and I asked my father why, he replied: “That is just the way it is.” Not satisfied with his answer, I asked why the dark skinned people live on one side of the river and the white on the other. He said: “That’s the way it is in this country, people prefer to live with their own races and not mix, besides it’s the law.” I replied to him that I thought it was wrong.
I had never viewed or perceived the nature of a person by their skin color. While still in Europe after the War and living on the streets of a completely destroyed city, I was often given food and treated more kindly by the African soldiers than their white counterparts in the British or French military. I did not view them as being different because of their skin color nor did they view me differently because of mine. Race relations within the United States was something I could never accept.
The issue of civil rights remained at the forefront of my consciousness and on a mild summer day in August of 1963, while attending college in Washington, D.C., I was one of 200,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial to hear Martin Luther King deliver his “I have a Dream” speech. For the next five years I participated in voter registration drives, demonstrations, marches and political campaigns to once and for all put an end to the ultimate stain on the American character.
I have watched with some degree of pride and accomplishment as doors were opened, barriers torn down, attitudes changed and equality become a reality and not a dream. I have no doubt that if Martin Luther King could see the transformation of our society that has taken place over these past 46 years there would be many things he would be proud of; not the least of which is the election of a bi-racial man as President.
With the success, as with all human endeavors, have come failures and exploitation. Among the honest mistakes made was the passage of massive government spending programs which had the unintended consequence of making a large segment of the black population dependent on the largess consequently destroying the foundation of the family and diminishing the ambition to succeed by one’s own effort.
Perhaps the most insidious aspect of all is the exploitation of the racial past by those both black and white who do so only to further their political aims or to amass greater wealth. These purveyors of dissension have deliberately and ceaselessly set out to keep open the wounds of past discrimination and not allow them to heal.
For decades now unscrupulous black leaders have been able to extort money and political power through the tactic of yelling racism whenever an incident involved white and black citizens; whether there was racism at play was immaterial. As the charge of racist has been the greatest societal pejorative since the 1960s, most people simply cowered, paid up and tacitly admitted guilt. Meanwhile, the black population has been repeatedly told by their elected officials that the reason for the poverty and despair in the inner cities is due solely to white racism. Further, this hopelessness could only be mitigated by reparations, more government spending and continuing to vote for these same left-wing Democrats who had helped create these conditions in the first place. This has been a deliberate effort to keep resentment alive instead of solving the real problems of these communities, mainly education, economic development, and job creation.
However, the most egregious and disgusting actions of all have been by the white liberal Democratic politicians who have used the “race card” to achieve power and advance their political agenda. They do not care if racial strife is perpetuated nor are they concerned for the well-being of the black population except to use them as a pawn in their incessant drive to control the levers of government. With the election of a far left President and Congress determined to re-make the country, these white race hustlers have now shown their true character by asserting that any criticism of President Obama’s radical agenda is racist in nature. In order to stifle criticism, induce guilt and pass their socialist agenda, they claim this is still a racist country.
Are there still racists in the country? Yes. In a country of 307 million there are a significant number of people who believe in all sort of strange and perverted philosophies. There will always be prejudice and discrimination in the hearts of men; there is so even within ethnic groups. Yet one of the favorite tactics of the left is to find a few examples of individual racism and intolerance and project that on society as a whole allowing these purveyors of “white guilt” to claim this is still a racist nation.
However what we fought so hard to end was: institutional racism, knowing that in time the attitudes of the people would change. This for the most part has been accomplished within less than 40 years. A truly remarkable accomplishment in such a short time as compared with the history of other nations.
In the 1960s those of us of all races, some of whom gave their lives, were determined to rid this great country of its most grievous original sin. It was not to give those among us today the opportunity to exploit race as a means to their devious ends either monetary or political. In the Army-McCarthy hearings of the 1950s Joseph N. Welch famously asked Senator McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency?” I ask all of you, black and white, who choose to sow the seeds of racial disharmony the same question.
This, as compared to the nation I saw in the 1950s, is not a racist country. The time has come to stop being intimidated by racial rhetoric and guilt for the past. The generations upon whose shoulders the guilt rests have since passed into the mists of history. Those alive today, black and white, are the ones who made the enormous advances in civil rights possible. It is a matter of immense pride and accomplishment, do not allow others to take it away from you.
It is rather time to focus on the challenges facing the country, which will affect all regardless of skin color. The policies put forth by President Obama and his radical cohorts in Congress will have a devastating impact on the ability of this nation to survive as a great economic and military power. The American people cannot be afraid to speak out and fight against these policies through the ballot box and peaceful public protests.
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Darin| 9.30.09 @ 6:54AM
Booker T. Washington has these folks nailed. "There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."
Bram| 9.30.09 @ 7:33AM
Wow - he had Al Sharpton and his fellow race hustlers nailed long ago.
Alan Brooks| 9.30.09 @ 3:51PM
Well at least now we know progress (aside from pure science) is dead.
Alan Brooks| 9.30.09 @ 6:38PM
Futurism is tantamount to palm reading, but one thing can be predicted: you can live longer, however the life you then lead is tawdry.
Win existence, lose real living.
Kurt| 9.30.09 @ 7:02PM
What?
Alan Brooks| 9.30.09 @ 11:43PM
Kurt,
you can this living? Rancid politics?
If things aren't so bad why (even allowing for sound and fury) do we fear today's race politics so much?
Because it is so unpleasant. And unlike the '60s there is nowhere to hide.
Alan Brooks| 9.30.09 @ 11:44PM
I can today's brave new world as existing, not living.
Shamus| 9.30.09 @ 7:07AM
The left believes people should be the slaves of the government. Decency is a foreign concept.
Appleby| 9.30.09 @ 7:31AM
On the day when it is tacitly accepted that Black people not only can be racist, but that most of the really virulent racism is now perpetuated by Blacks, then we will have made the kind of strides against racism that we need to make. And why are there so many Black racists? Because they can get away with it.
YOUARACIST! is the ultimate squelch for anyone who asks why Blacks (or Indians, for that matter) insist on living in squalor on the coins flung to them by uncaring bureaucrats in a country where children whose families come here from refugee camps without enough English to ask their way to the washroom graduate four years later as Valedictorians. (In Atlanta the Blacks insisted, when I lived there, that these refugees were being paid under the table in coins deserved by Black failures!)
Once I worked four years for a Black educator who was about to retire, and he used to tell me about his youth and what he had to go through to succeed.
He also told me this joke:
Three men arrived at the Pearly Gates and God said to them, *If you can ask Me a question I cannot answer, you can come through these gates to Paradise.*
The first two failed the test.
The third asked, *God, when will Black Folks get their act together?*
God threw up his hands and said, *You got Me, son. Go on in.*
Mike Giles| 9.30.09 @ 5:01PM
"And why are there so many Black racists? Because they can get away with it. "
Hmm. How about because we've been shown for - oh - about 350 years, that it was all about race. And some of us - by no means all, or even most, haven't unlearned all those "lessons" yet. Besides, given the history, are you really surprised that blacks are suspicious of whites, and distrustful of their motives? And then there's the point that all blacks aren't living in inner city ghettos on welfare, no matter what you keep seeing on the 6 O'Clock News.
As for your asinine "joke", are all you pale folks out of trailer parks yet? Just using your standard, whereby if some blacks haven't made it, all blacks are failures.
Big Leo| 10.1.09 @ 1:21AM
Whites don't keep whites in trailer courts. And they also don't keep Blacks in ghettos. The inhabitants manage to do that for themselves quite nicely. Your exit ticket from the ghetto is in your own hand, not the hand of anyone else. Believe that, and the problem is half solved already.
Appleby| 10.1.09 @ 10:14AM
The man who told me that joke was a Black educator who graduated with a Ph.D. from Columbia University in the 1950s. I think he probably knows a good deal more than you do about what it takes to succeed in a world that's working against you. And if you have lived 350 years and you still haven't got the revenge you desire, you're just not trying hard enough.
By the way, can you see me? Why do you assume I'm "pale folks"? Could be I'm "A Oreo" ... you just don't know.
Spiceman| 10.2.09 @ 4:34AM
The Blacks will only solve their own problems when they themselves admit that they have a problem (or Problems)
Bryan| 9.30.09 @ 7:32AM
The biggest contributors to racial hatred may be the trainers of racial sensitivity. Instead of training people to overcome insensitivity, they train people to be more sensitive. In many cases people are given new ideas on racial, religious, ual, and economic bias. They are taught new things to be offended by. And those who have any tendency towards bias are taught new ways that people may sneak bias into decisions.
Trainers should be limited to teaching how to overcome bigotry, and stop teaching how to be offended by bigotry.
marianne7| 9.30.09 @ 12:41PM
Actually, it is their intent and tactic to sensitize their audience to everyday phrases so as to label them "code". Those phrases are picked from the philosophies of political enemies rather than picked from racial incidents.
TVK| 9.30.09 @ 1:26PM
When Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters. Fuzzy Zoeller publicly urged him not to order
fried chicken or collard greens for the Champions dinner the following year. Well, all hell
broke out. Fuzzy, always a wise cracking guy, lost his Kmart sponsorship and was pilloried.
Had a Scot won, Fuzzy might have urged against Haggis. Rain man was right, Kmart does suck.
They are also wimps.
Kurt| 9.30.09 @ 7:10PM
Bryan. Yes to your first paragraph. As for your answer to this, it is as riddled with human folly as the human condition itself. Forget the trainers/ejukaters, think for yourself or fall under the control of those who think for you.
Timothy L. Pennell| 9.30.09 @ 8:12AM
It's all Bread and Circuses. Divide and Conquer. Blame the Jews. You can say what you want, about these dirtbags, but they know their History. Keep them 'Distracted', and they won't even notice the JACKBOOT on their necks. SEIG HEIL! my Leftist friends. SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL!
albert constantine, jr.| 9.30.09 @ 2:19PM
My apologies for the correction, but the correct spelling is Sieg (the German word for victory). Seig would be pronounced with a long I sound.
Deborah D | 9.30.09 @ 8:44AM
The left does not have a sense of decency. All of this was done with political correctness and multiculturalism in order to divide the country. (United we stand -- divided we fall.) Political correctness has its roots in Marxism. Is it all coming together for you?
Please watch this excellent Bill Whittle video regarding the roots of political correctness:
http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afte.....ness/2343/
Fred Edwards| 9.30.09 @ 8:58AM
Imagine this: It's 1958 , a meeting takes place with Lyndon Johnson, J. Fullbright, Al Gore Sr.,George Wallace, Strom Thurmund, Robert Byrd, and other segregationists ( all Democrats)
in attendance.
They recognize the coming inevitability of civil
rights for the negroes (which they politely call them).
A plan is hatched, give the negroes welfare but the father of the children cannot be around ( break-up the family structure). Herd them into ghettos in New york, D.C., Chicago, Detroit etc. Give them all the drugs they want. give them all the weapons too ( they'll kill each other and terrorize their own pe0ple). Give them lousy schools, and teach them that education is worthless. . Encourage teen pregnancy, but at the same time bring Planned Parenthood Abortion clinics into their neighborhoods. ( black women represent 13% of the USA female population but they have 40% of all abortions ...eugenics is finally working just ask Justice Ginsburg.)
And al this will come to pass and the negroes will become dependents on the government.
fred edwards| 10.1.09 @ 11:11PM
And they will all become subservient Democrats.
It's all so diabolical.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.30.09 @ 9:14AM
Mr. McCann
a very moving article. Thank you.
I do have one quibble with your paragraph below.
>>With the success, as with all human endeavors, have come failures and exploitation. Among the honest mistakes made was the passage of massive government spending programs which had the unintended consequence of making a large segment of the black population dependent on the largess consequently destroying the foundation of the family and diminishing the ambition to succeed by one's own effort
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.30.09 @ 9:22AM
I don't believe they were "honest mistakes", knowing LBJ as well as we Texans do. He was a physical and moral coward...period.
I believe many INTENDED consequences occurred as well. ie: dependent voting blocks.
I was a MLK rooter from day one. (I had read "Black Like Me" before I heard of MLK.)
He was a fine preacher, and being from Texas, I could get my hands around his preaching style to his people.
Kurt| 9.30.09 @ 7:27PM
From the do gooders come unintended consequences-from the evil intended consequences. At best laws can bring some order and a sense of justice. Mostly they bring folly.
Casey| 10.4.09 @ 6:01PM
Excellent point made by all; Democrats want the votes. They've done it to all poor, underprivileged, undereducated people, white or black and now to the latino - just so they keep getting voted in so they can keep taking the publics' money for their own personal use.
As many have pointed out; democracy survives ONLY when an EDUCATED public is smart enough, and strong enough, and independent enough to take care of themselves and identify the crooks who take advantage, once voted in..
martin j smith| 9.30.09 @ 11:00AM
If its not the race card its anti-immigrant if its not that its homophobia and if its not that the you are Nazis. I mean come on get real --know your opposition. Do not be openmouthed as if you could believe this stuff is happening. Its been the Democratic playbook for years. think the most important thing is to be realisitic about your opposition not surprised.
Oldefarte| 9.30.09 @ 11:52AM
""""RACISM"""" is not the issue here-----"""""WELFARE"""" is the issue! The public educational institutions [taxpayer funded] are in place to provide a """"MEANS""""to privide income and/or wealth to every graduate, be they white, black or whatever. It is not the moral obligation of American taxpayers to provide WELFARE [insurance, housing, food, clothing, transportation,etc] to those that should be [but are not] capable of providing their won way in life. Americans' taxes should fund defense and infrastructure needs of the nation, not WELFARE; and all such socialistic, communistic social services funded by the government should stop NOW!!!!!!!!
Sardu| 9.30.09 @ 12:37PM
Maybe what we need to do is bring back real racism. Just one day a year. We could have segregation of everything: jobs, public facilities, businesses. No black votes would count and all black politicians would be out of office. We could cut all minority wages by 75%- if we pay 'em at all. We could hurl abuse and invective and get away with it. Police would truly ignore any complaints from blacks, and maybe even give those doing them wrong a friendly helping hand. After a taste of what it was truly like in the Bad Old Days we might see a tremendous attitude adjustment by people on both sides of the fence.
fundamentalist| 9.30.09 @ 1:21PM
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960's was a good thing, but it had some bad, unintended consequences, as all political action does. Before, blacks were relatively prosperous. They had thriving motion picture , sports and manufacturing industries. But with freedom, blacks chose to abandon those black businesses that had served them well and buy from white-owned businesses and watch white movies. As a result, black industry was devastated and unemployment soared. I don' t know how that could have been avoided, other than to warn blacks ahead of time and give black businessmen a chance to diversify, but it was certainly devastating to the black community.
Real American| 9.30.09 @ 1:45PM
No.
LoyalOpposition| 9.30.09 @ 3:13PM
Something is amiss. Bush and his evil puppet master – Dick Cheney – lie to manipulate American patriotism to justify invading Iraq, and conservatives are silent. Bush inherits, then squanders a $759 billion surplus, and conservatives are silent. Bush appoints a horse trader to head FEMA, thousands die of thirst in the aftermath of Katrina, and conservatives are quiet. Bush guts the Geneva Conventions, authorizes torture, and conservatives are silent. Bush condones risky subprime mortgage derivatives, America dances on the precipice of economic annihilation, and conservatives are silent. Bush razes the Fourth Amendment, authorizes warrantless eavesdropping, and conservatives are silent. Bush signs $1.2 trillion Prescription Drug Bill, a federally subsidized give-away which balloons the deficit, and conservatives are silent. Bush diverts $1 trillion from the counter-terrorism struggle in Afghanistan, making America significantly less safe, and conservatives are silent. Bush signs unfunded NCLB legislation, the most intrusive Federal education law in history, and conservatives are quiet. Bush sends troops to war with no body amour, and conservatives are silent. Bush deregulation exposes 2.5 million children to toxic toys from China, and conservatives are silent. Birthers delegitimize the first black president, choosing instead to ignore 8 years of Bush inflicted plunder and ruination, and conservatives applaud. Obama talks to school children about being successful, conservatives cry foul. Bush rambles incoherently while addressing school children in Florida, and republicans anoint him God. Racism, bigotry, and hypocrisy: cherished planks in the republican platform.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....04175.html
Flee| 9.30.09 @ 3:58PM
Typical demonization of Bush as if Obama had no influence as a Senator or any of the other Senators and Reps had anything to do with running the govt. I guess voting present does absolve Obama of responsibility. You would think you could see that the President does not get all he wants without the consent of Congress. Try pointing your decrepit, useless finger in the right direction some time and get back to us.
pm cronin| 9.30.09 @ 5:57PM
"Thousands die of thirst from Katrina"? I thought that was tens of thousands died from the Kansas tornado during the presidential campaign, according to then candidate Obama (oh, right, that was actually twelve people) .
Kurt| 9.30.09 @ 7:34PM
Dear Loyal Opposition; Indeed what you say is true, however your implication (judging by the link) seems to indicate that government takeover by the left is a lesser of two evils. Please remember-choosing between two evils is still evil.
Big Leo| 10.1.09 @ 1:26AM
I could refute every delusional point you make, but I would be wasting my time and yours. Let me be brief. You, sir, are a moron.
Bruce | 10.1.09 @ 12:55PM
Short and to the point:) Well said, Leo - it would indeed be a waste of time - these lefties just don't GET IT.
Louis Jenkins| 9.30.09 @ 3:21PM
"The policies put forth by President Obama and his radical cohorts in Congress will have a devastating impact on the ability of this nation to survive as a great economic and military power."
An honest opinion! This nation will not survive its current direction of travel with the Obamatrons at the helm. All efforts for equality under previous conditions will be moot. The equality of economic destitution will be the result, it is their plan. Don't listen to their words of hope and change. Observe their actions!!
Roy| 9.30.09 @ 3:32PM
LO:
Don't you mean "loyal supporter"?
Other than that, I basically saw a long string of irrelevant non-sequiturs that had nothing to do with anything, let alone the article itself. Scratch that, it did have to do with something: It had to do with demonstrating that liberals will go on irrelevantly bashing Bush until the Earth crashes into the Sun.
Stray Bullet| 9.30.09 @ 4:27PM
Did Slavery Pass Away totally ? No.
There is a new form of slavery here in USA today.
And it takes these forms :
Slave wages = Wellfare and Entitlement Programs
The Plantation = Everywhere Democrat Voters live
Slave Quarters = Govt. Housing
Overseers = Jesse Jackson, Farakhan, Rangel, etc.
Massas' = Democrat Politicians
Education = Dumbed down to keep them ignorant and voting for Democrats
Family = Destroyed and torn apart by Govt welfare provisions, loss of the father's responsibility for family
Does any of this remind you of the Slavery of years gone by ? Effects the same ? Aspects still here but by new names ?
Welcome to the Plantation !
Deborah D | 10.1.09 @ 5:52AM
Well done.
Kurt| 10.1.09 @ 9:32AM
Add to this list, the working producer in society, for they are forced into paying more taxes and working for an ancreasingly devalued $.
Richard Baker| 9.30.09 @ 4:43PM
I believe that Darin's quote from Booker T. is from his book "Up From Slavery" which was a great work. Read the full volume and not the short abridged version that's out there. Regardless, he spoke of the race hustlers long before the present buffoons came on the scene.
Bydand76| 9.30.09 @ 8:06PM
LoyalOpposition?
Seriously? The same old tired BS argument that is continually debunked time and time again and still you ramble on about it.
Here is some advice for you.........Grow up, get out of your Grandma's basement, get a job, get a girlfriend/boyfriend and get busy living in the real world. Maybe form an opinion for yourself for a change eh? Libtard!
Honestly. this is getting redundant !
Bydand76| 9.30.09 @ 8:12PM
The left will never change is way's and to be honest with you this is only going to get worse in this country.
Until universities quit teaching that the evil for all of the worlds problems is mean ole whitey this will continue.
Political correctness is a disease and is contagious for the young and simple minded.
African American history month, Hispanisc Hertiage month, etc etc etc only further propogates the issue and continues to sepreate what should be an otherwise noble venture.
Perhaps we should just label every month HUMAN history month and be done with it.
with that being said,
I personally would like to see a Scots-Irish history month....... simply for the beer and whiskey of course. HA HA
UpChuck.Liberals| 9.30.09 @ 10:44PM
I personally would like to see a Scots-Irish history month....... simply for the beer and whiskey of course. HA HA
You Laugh, it's a great idea, make more sense than all the other crap they (the left wing morons) try to foist off on us.
philfl63| 9.30.09 @ 11:21PM
Mr. McCann, congrats on your civil rights activities. We know the results of that. This is still America and people have a right to think and believe what they want and to associate with whom they wish. If a man is a "racist" in your definition, that does not make him perverted or strange. I do not know your race (irrelevant), but if you are white, I would bet that you do not live in a black ghetto, and I would presume that the situation overall from your youth was more civilized and orderly than today. I doubt your father would today go to a theater on the bad, black side of town.
Ole Sarge| 10.1.09 @ 5:42PM
If you are ever accused of being a racist and about to be drug into court or what ever, try finding a lawyer to defend you. You will be lucky if you find anyone that will even talk to you let alone take your case.
When we remove the preferential rights that blacks have acquired and ignore the racist sensationalism that accompanies the claims of racism, then equality will have arrived. I don't see it happening anytime soon, though zero may have gone a long ways towards furthering this aim, though unintentionally.
JeffT| 10.3.09 @ 1:49PM
The irony of race is that it is the liberal, white Democrats that are now the plantation owners. Blacks, especially in the inner cities, have traded their freedom for slavery. The projects, welfare, affirmative action, all of these have buried the black race into eternal poverty and subsistence living. When 95% of a group of individuals votes for one person, that is group think. Before the "compassion" of Northern liberals, black families were intact and children were born to married couples. Thanks to the welfare check replacing the black father, we have the obscenity of 72% single mothers in the black community. So when we see videos of blacks killing other blacks with railroad ties, are we really shocked? The liberals have created these hells-on-earth in the major cities. They do this intentionally. No one could be that careless or stupid, could they? Really? If the cities are despicable places to live it is because they want it this way. A pox on all their houses. The only question is when will the blacks realize the white, liberal Democrats are their masters, not their knights in shining armor?
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