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.
