Lebell

SOB!!!

I had a huge reply and I lost it.

Sometimes I hate technology.

*edit,

Ok, I felt it was important enough, so I rebuilt my post in Word.

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Buddah,

I would say that you haven’t looked hard enough, but the sad truth is, I don’t believe you have looked at all: Black Americans/Black History on Stamps

And yes, Dr. King’s words are still moving, thirty years after he wrote them, but it IS thirty years later.

One of my most moving experiences was when I traveled to Birmingham, Alabama a few years ago and visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, right across the street from the famous/infamous Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

As I walked through the exhibits of letters, Klan robes, pictures and even a reproduction of a burnt out “freedom bus”, I was moved to tears at how inhuman and cruel we can be to our fellow man.

Then I walked across the street through the park, where many of these events occurred. I walked through the bronze statues there, depicting among other things, Bull Conner’s dogs attacking a young black man, and I was moved to tears again.

But the fact that these things were here, in Birmingham, was a testament of just how far we’ve come. The fact that blacks have risen to high political office, including Secretary of State and governor of Virginia no less, tells me that we have come far.


I am not blind to the fact that we still have a long way to go.

I am not blind to the fact that there is still prejudice and that it has become subtler and insidious.

It is human nature to segregate and to associate with those who look like “us”, whether that “us” be white, black, latino, asian, etc. And as an extension, to discriminate against those who don’t look like “us”. The nature of prejudice, ironically, knows no color.

But I also believe that the black community adds to the problem and holds itself back. I also believe that this is encouraged by some on the political left for their own advantage.
They are told that they can’t succeed, whether it is because they live in a ghetto, because their schools don’t have enough money, or simply because there is someone who will always hold them back, basically because they are black.

Then they are told that the only way they can succeed is if they are “allowed” to, by being admitted to colleges and by being hired into good jobs, not because of their ability, but again, because they are black.

This spits in the face of Dr. King

And those black people who do succeed are frequently further victimized by their own, by being called “Uncle Tom” or “Oreo”, because those who don’t succeed believe that any black who does, must have “sold out”, as if being true to your (black) heritage means you remain in the ghetto.

This self-victimization is further seen by the scale of black-on-black crime. Blacks victimize other blacks at rates higher than any other racial group. They are also disproportionately represented in American prisons, especially death row.* Then they are told by those on the left that this is proof that they are still victims of discrimination, that somehow it isn’t the black criminal’s fault that he is a criminal.

Ironically, if you point this out, you are likely to be called a bigot, as if pointing out stark statistics is prejudiced.

So in closing, I would like to say that I believe discrimination is very real in America. That it exists everywhere and affects all people, some to a greater and some to a lesser degree. It is certainly still easier to “succeed” being a white male as opposed to a black female. But there ARE black females that have succeeded. So I don’t believe things are as bleak as you paint. I also firmly believe that anything that drives a wedge between people and excludes them, whether it be Hispanic “pride” clubs, affirmative action, the KKK, etc. is morally wrong and inherently evil.


*It would be neglegent of me not to say that I DO believe there is prejudice in our judicial system still, and that I believe a black murder defendant is more likely to receive the death penalty than a white murder defendant, which is (just) one reason I am against capital punishment.

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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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