The following is a syndicated column from January 1, 2004. I think it serves as a useful reminder for today.
With the ever present cacophony of shrill orthopterans – who pervert Martin Luther King’s call for the same unencumbered opportunity for blacks as for whites to one of lowered expectations without accountability – it is only fair to compare what he said juxtaposed to the reality of today.
Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 Dr. King said:
I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Ala., our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Miss., young people asking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered.
Forty years later, the polar opposite is the case. It is not police with fire hoses and dogs who bring misery and death, rather it is the vicious crimes perpetrated by blacks against other blacks who are trapped in multigenerational wastelands of self-imposed poverty.
Today it is not the Klan riding through our neighborhoods killing our men and raping our women. It is our own neighbors depriving us of our civil rights, and it is our own leaders who seem preoccupied with blaming cops, the system and everyone else.
– Jerry Oliver, chief of police, Richmond, Va., Aug. 27, 2000
Today in Philadelphia, Miss., a bustling community of 7,300, the president of the Board of Supervisors is black, as is the fire chief and alderman. There are black administrators, teachers, police officers and professionals. King died too soon.
In 1960, Dr. King said: “Only 7.8 percent of the Negro students in the South are attending integrated schools this year, a hundred years after our emancipation from slavery. At this pace it will take 92 more years to integrate the public schools of the South.” Dr. King did not live long enough to see the inclusion of blacks into every facet of the educational landscape.
A question: How long will it now take for black students to end the detestable practice of self segregation? An observation: How misguided the black student who accepts the idea that striving for academic excellence is to be equated with being “white,” when in actuality it is equipping oneself with the best possible chance for economic success. I believe King would have told them to look in the mirror – for it is there they will find the man most responsible for their ills.
“We must have freedom now. We must have the right to vote. We must have equal protection of the law,” said Dr. King after a march on the Alabama state capitol. Yet today – despite unparalleled advancement – the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, the Jacksons and Sharptons, et al. would tell us that America is fundamentally flawed, that it purposefully excludes great numbers of blacks because of their color. But questions need answering before one accepts their premise.
First, if blacks are being excluded, how does one reconcile the litany of blacks participating in every aspect of America’s opportunities? How do they substantiate their claims of exclusion and racism, when they themselves live in gated communities and gilded townhouses, while sending their children to the most elite private academies and universities? Was it white racists who mimicked Justice Janice Rogers Brown? Is it white racists who are teaching children to hate Justice Clarence Thomas or parody National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice? Point out the white person who publicly called Secretary of State Colin Powell a house slave.
I could never adjust to the separate waiting rooms, separate eating places, separate rest rooms, partly because the separate was always unequal, and partly because the very idea of separation did something to my sense of dignity and self-respect.
– King, 1958
Today the self-segregation of blacks sends an unambiguous message of self-centered contempt, not a message of common goals and concerns. It is the shameful and senseless practice of heterotypicism of blacks – spurred on by their false prophets, who view those so inclined with necrophagous glee. When combined with poor academic skills, poor – if any – marketable abilities and an abject absence of sound biblical teaching, one can understand why so many in the urban environs are misguided and angry.
King said, “Segregation not only harms one physically, but injures one spiritually. It scars the soul; it is a system which forever stares the segregated in the face, saying ‘you are less than …’ ‘You are not equal to …’”
But why would the Congressional Black Caucus, NAACP, et al. change their message? After all, private clubs, schools and salons – in brief, their lifestyles as a whole – are not getting any cheaper. If they correct their message, they will lose their meal ticket … and they cannot afford to have that happen.
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I will always remember my Dad, in the 50′s, pitching a fit when the school systems started receiving government money. I didn’t understand then, but I sure do now. He had an eye on the government as a necessary evil and far too intrusive on a person’s private life. To be totally and fairly honest, he considered it a near constitutional right to chase the women In Europe and consume vast quantities of liberated wine and then being busted three times for fighting the wrong people. I think it’s easy to forgive him those transgressions as he, being a grunt (an infantry rifleman), followed General Patton across North Africa, up through Italy and then into France and finally touched foot in Germany before he had a nervous breakdown. To his last day he hated Patton and his “damn” tanks whose dust he ate for three years.
The easiest evil that came with government money is the teachers unions. There is no measurement of their success, just how long they’re around. In public schools it’s virtually impossible to get a teacher reprimanded, much less fired. I was fortunate enough to attend a junior and senior high schools that where “college prep” and had some excellent, dedicated teachers. Those were the ones you tried to stay away from because they expected you to perform. They went from Ms. Buena Vista Morrison (I swear that’s true) who among other hardships made us memorize all the Presidents in chronological order and recite them in front of the class. We also had to be able to point out the states and name their capitals. Extra credit went to those nerds that knew what their largest industry was. Only our fear of her made her very, very successful. To this day and as recently as our 50th reunion two years ago, those of us that suffered through her Social Studies classes are still able to recite them. On the other side of the coin was Mr. Brown Woods Scott (again I swear) who could barely walk and chew gun at the same time. He taught chemistry, or maybe I should say had the class where we were to learn first year chemistry. The school system was experimenting with television assisted classes and this was one of them. Mr. Scott knew less than we did because he did not do his homework. Our TV professor (from MIT no less) would teach for a half hour each day and we were to do the prepared lessons from the book that came with the class. If we were stumped, we were to ask the in classroom teacher (Mr. Scott) for help. We had a couple of “brains” in the class, one being Neil Dobry, and most every time someone would ask a question, Mr. Scott would turn to Neil and ask him t see if he could help us out as Mr. Scott had no idea what anything chemical wise meant. That’s my personal alpha and omega of the value of union protected teachers.
If Ms. Morrison or Mr. Schott are ever resurrected, I’ll still be able to run off the Presidents almost without thinking and recite the periodic table and chemical abbreviations. Neither ability has ever won me a single beer. It has gotten me some strange looks from time to time.
I have read through most of the comments made, and while almost all were direct, to the point and with facts, there is a single factor which couples them all together which seems to be overlooked.
We were warned by the founders we must always be prepared to fend off an over-arching government, as well as the fact politicians always use the notion a crisis is at hand, and government must take extraordinary power to control the crisis, and restore peace.
During the immediate post war era, we could have accomplished exactly what was accomplished a century later, if our ancestors had simply applied the law.
During all that century when it was not, the segregated school system was completely overwhelmed by the actions of socialists, and it has become very much taken over by people with the intent to turn our Nation into a communist subject nation beneath a communist controlled U.N. world government.
The disparities between the treatment of Black and White students was well used to instill hatred, it has been used to assemble ridiculous ideas regarding wealth, and what it means, how it is acquired, and why there is such a range in wealth.
In short, allowing government to control our schools allows us to not take the responsibility to educate our children, in exactly the same way it teaches a people women can do without men, destroying millennia long established principles which are fact based, not opinion, and have been the only principles which have existed world wide all this time, because they are natural, a part of The Creation, and without having personal convictions of the necessity of ensuring each of our own children gets the full opportunity to pursue an education, we can’t fix most of our problems.
More than anything else, we must be the primary persons in our children’s lives, from feeding them and providing clothing and rules, to enlightening them into the wonders which can be found through searching, which is all an education in reality can be.
My mother was the most influential factor in my getting to high school, much less graduating. My sisters and I were read to from birth, my mom’s means was to find the best stories, most enticing, and reading a chapter each night at bedtime.
Her first focus was on finding stories which demand to be finished, and entice the whole mind, and they are legion, among the “classics”. I learned to read by three, without being able to put the memorized alphabet together with the written letters for years to come.
I am dyslexic, and I learned to read by seeing words as pictographs, and by reading incessantly, got an education despite all my problems.
The ability to find something my older sister and I could not live without hearing the rest, was the most important factor in my learning to read, and I believe knowing how to read well is the single most important factor in how far a person pursues their own education.
I don’t believe there can be a better means of learning to read than the form I learned under, and it requires parents, not “parent”. My father was at sea three months, at home three weeks, round robin for most of my childhood.
He provided a sustainable income, and solid, substantial principles holding honor high, along with truth as absolute, and reinforcing all my mother’s lessons without question.
We can’t afford to allow the government to continue to run our schools, but we must choose to first, take responsibility for being the primary person determined to see our children fully educated, and we must establish the full foundation for it long before they are old enough for school.
My great grandfather, George Washington VanHoose, left home when he was about eleven, when his father, a drunk, started beating on his younger brother, and took him with him. He worked from that time to his brother’s reaching a full education, eighth grade at the time, and enlisted in the Army for the Spanish-American war.
While in the Army during and after the war, he came to realize how important an education was, and not ever having been in school, at 21, he returned to his home town when he left the Army, took a seat with the first graders in the one room school house, and got his education in a matter of four or five years.
He finished his education in part because he fell in love with the teacher from the start and ended up marrying her.
We can change what we are when we realize a need to do so, but there can be no doubt we are all better off if we can start a good education while still in diapers, and far more than mere rote memorization, but how to think, and how to discern truth, things parents have the greatest ability of all, to instill in another, because children will take with fervor, that which parents lovingly give them that opens eyes to see things, and minds to understand.
We can do so, and send them to “government schools” and do far better than we are. We can also do so, and at the same time, take up the job of controlling our local school and being involved in every aspect of it, making it a community school the people of the community raise up to its highest levels, rather than depending on a government which must parse money before considering outcome.
If we own, control and fund our own schools, how much of what is spent goes to the school, and how much goes to hire people to be in charge of a system, which to them is a job, with endless paperwork, and little to do with anything else?
It is truly time to take back the ownership of our community schools, fund and finance them with local taxes, and eliminate the central middle man consuming our dollars for paperwork.
There can be no doubt we must consider watching over our schools and keeping them competitive with each other, and keeping the best teachers, while asking the worst to move on to a more suitable job, but we do it best locally, and the single most important aspect extending outside locality is proper and constant assessment of achievement, and a well organized method of putting the whole of a Nation’s schools in a rational perspective relative to standards of education, and standards for topics and resources for honest textual material.
We should not allow the standards be set by government, but they should be established by the putting up of what is taught at every location with conventions for both parents and teachers, and we decide ourselves what our children must have to be able to learn, and what they must learn to provide for their own futures. Allowing the government to control this most important aspect of our children’s lives is a crime, and we must stop it.
Sincerely,
John McClain
Jocelyn, you have put into writing what I have often thought…
I have never felt that Obama was of the legacy of Rev. ML King-who was never about race or class hatred. In fact, under the NDAA act snuck into action over New Year’s Eve,a man like Rev. King could be considered a “covered person” who is sent to a prison without trial for “hostilities” against the government, or even a “belligerant” act if that is how this government chooses to view civil disobedience. This regime has some very dangerous labels written into laws that can be used against our own citizens.
I agree with you completely Barb. A child’s homelife is a major contributor to a child’s sucess in school and in life. I’ll admit that I did most of my homework because I enjoyed it, not because I was made to or helped. Math and science fasinated me and still do. I hated reading A house of Seven Gables and Ivanho. I’ll never understand why they are considered great works of iterature. Mitchner and Jakes are more my speed although I admit I have every book that Stephen King has written, some inscribed.
My son picked up my enjoyment of math and passed me many miles back. My daughter is more the artsy type. Her encouragement there came mostly from her mother who is a pretty fair artist. She had great fun in school being a Thesbian and worked the stage as well as costumes and sets. She did a pretty fair job of Little House of Horrors. Some think I’m a tad bias, but in her case, I’m not. She’s just good and loves it. BTW, I’m a seasoned citizen too.
The proof of your observations is proved by a job I held for a couple of years after retirement. I was a guard at a Texas Youth Commission “School”. We used to call them reformatorys. Most of the kids that came in where I worked as a JCO (Junior Child Officer, AKA guard) were from poor families with parents that could care less about their kids. Some were even forced to sell drugs with their dad being their supplier and their mother walking the streets. All were members of gangs. They had to be or didn’t stand a chance on the street. Many had been shot in drive bys or in stand offs. The gangs are their real families. Most hadn’t made it past the 7th grade. GED classes were offered at the “school” and a few took advantage of them. Most didn’t and those that took advantage of them were looked down on. It seemed that being young and stupid was a badge of honor.
The great failure of these criminal kid’s (that’s what they are regardless of whatever is the PC classification) education and success was because when they had served their sentence, they were given $10.00 and returned to the same environment they came from. It wasn’t unusual to read in the newspapers where they were found dead on the street or floating down the Trinity River soon thereafter.
I don’t have any answers to this problem and I can assure you that most of the youth never had a chance of a normal life.
Sumitch I can’t answer all your questions but I know as a kindergarten volunteer for 10 years, (I am a senior citizen), that a lot depends on the environment a child lives in at home, the support a child has at home with classwork/homework and the communication between parent/teacher…I also know many kids come to school without breakfast, a real breakfast, even a bowl of oatmeal is unheard of…..more like a toaster pastry or fast foods! These kids have 1/2 of a chance in this environment, (and I don’t volunteer in a lower class neighborhood by any means). it is an uphill struggle for most kids, of any color to succeed…most parents don’t care, don’t have parent/teacher conferences and what irritates me the most is when they send the poor kids to school sick, and then don’t answer their phones to come pick them up and take them home!!!! a lot of the problem is NOT the schools….it’s a people problem….just my thought….
Mrs Avery I understand your point but wonder why a disproportionate number of black children are being shortchanged when it comes to educational opportunities. I’ll certainly agree that the unions have their motives to enrich their members (forced and otherwise) and not the quality of the work.
Teacher pay and benefits was the major usage of tax money (80% I’ve heard) in the now bankrupt town of Stockton, California. Extortion is stock and trade for the way unions work. Either give us what we want, or we’ll walk or shut you down. It’s the way unions stay in control. The welfare of the children is the least of their concerns even though they will use it to hammer more benefits for their membership. Now in large measure they have not only cost the children of Stockton a quality education, but insured that many people will not enjoy a comfortable retirement if any retirement at all. I’ll bet that’s one of the main reasons that the United States is seeing so many of their companies move to other countrys.
There used to be solid reasons and need for unions but now even non union companies are very competitive with union controlled companies. A company that was the precursor of Enron that I used to work for had a union almost voted in until the employees learned that they would lose many of the benefits they had if they forced the company to “go union”.
I’m not saying that unions aren’t needed because the companies would become sweat shops once again if not for them. But they need to set their greed aside for the benefit of the community. A major reason for the spread of wages and benefits of government jobs is due to unions. It part of the reason that the country is for all intents and purposes bankrupt just like Stockton.
Isn’t the money that is actually spent educating children equally disbursed and used, or is there some favoritism shown to all white schools? Isn’t the poor performance of black and Hispanics compared to whites and Asians due to the children’s attitude toward education rather than the amount of money spent? Here in Texas it is mandatory that our teachers learn Mexican. Isn’t that spending money to accommodate them? Not to mention one reason why so many Hispanics refuse to assimilate. There was even an attempt in California to require Ebonics, which isn’t even a recognized nation’s language be taught
Mychal, I have only one thing to say after reading many of your blogs. When will the GOP get your name on a ballot? You already have my vote. Thank you for some awesome reading.
Yes, Mychal, it is a terrible shame that the Jacksons, Sharptons, NAACP and Black Caucus have perpetrated a horrible and deplorable crime upon the black community and all so that they can get wealthy from race baiting and assisting in keeping blacks in their proverbial place.
Dr. King sought to lift up all and interestingly, I think his wisdom as prophetical is indeed more highly esteemed by non-blacks. The urban black community have made the likes of Jackson and Sharpton their false prophets.
I sometimes wonder if Reverend (a REAL reverend) King is seated beside Jesus,looking down upon us, and questioning whether he failed his dream.
I learned from his teaching that all people are created and should be treated equal, that even though he was striving to gain equal treatment and status for those of his race, his main goal was to see the day when the color of a man’s skin and/or the native language of his father would make no difference in whether he would be accepted by all peoples.
Some of Dr. King’s people are living his dream and some (maybe a majority) have rejected his dream. But then, the man with whom he is seated and shares his misgivings understands and shares those same feelings.
[W3]
I find your article very interesting. I was an Human Resources Manager for 35 years and ended my career as a Compliance Manager. I’ve always been a “people watcher” — meaning behaviors. My company had a very strong diversity program throughout the years and one behavior that I would find is that the minorities might work with everyone, but when it came to breaks, lunch, company picnics/
parties, etc., you would see that the minorities would tend to self-segregate — would always sit together, etc. My reaction was you want to be treated equal but you really don’t want to participate equally. Then I would hear that the whites don’t like me, they never include me. I would mention what I had observed and ask, “What message do you think you are sending by not participating at non-work events with everyone?” They really couldn’t answer. Well, I said, your message is, “I don’t want to be included except when I choose.” So, result — the whites are accommodating you. Most often, their reply was, “I never thought about it that way.” Then I would give them an assignment to someday when their team was working on a project and breaking for lunch to just invite their teammates to lunch and let me know what happened. Over the years, they invariably found that the “white” teammate said, “Sure, where do you want to go.” Now, how did I know this, because when I was the first “female” promoted to management, I had to ensure that my “male” counterparts saw me as part of their team. So, instead of waiting for them to include me, I took the initiative to step forward. Was it easy, “No!” Everyone fears rejection. Well, to this day I was never rejected — and more readily part of the team. I knew if I ever had a “female chip on my shoulder” I be the owner of my rejection. It’s just human behavior!
Also, over the years as we promoted minorities into manager roles, I was surprised at how many would tell me how encouraging it was to have their teammates, other managers – most likely “white”, congratulate them. They really appreciated the support, and would then say that the least group to support them were their other minority teammates. Again, I found the same behavior when I moved into management, it was the men who said congrats — you really have earned this and will be successful. My female counterparts did not — and if anything would tell me you can’t succeed the men won’t let you. Again, human behavior — who should have been my greatest support understanding that if I could be successful then maybe more women could — and doors would be opened. Same goes for minorities. So back to your article, the Jacksons and Sharpton’s have “their goodies” but use their power to hold back their own. Unfortunately, their own can’t see it.
What you call welfare, John, was originally a program to aid war widows with dependent children. And as more women became the sole parent in a household it was expanded. IMO Radical Feminism (not to be confused with a woman’s right to equality) is the mother of welfare and a major cause of the break-up of the American family, including the black family. Feminism taught women, “You don’t need your man or his support of your children. You can have your own money, a check every month.” And no one was hurt more by this than black Americans, who were already struggling for their piece of the American pie in the form of civil rights. Plus, the worst thing welfare did to black Americans was to make them non-entities. You see, when who the elected officials are has no bearing on your income, your way of life or the taxes you pay, there was little incentive to vote or care who is elected. Welfare feeds apathy. But I’ll tell you.. black Americans are by far not the biggest strain on the welfare dollar and food stamps, contrary to what many Americans seem to think. Blacks only account for about 13-14% of the population, and upwards to 40% of the American population receives some sort of aid or food stamps.
My best and dearest friends are black. From many different countries…we totally respect each other and socialize at each others houses..and other venues..they are great cooks and mothers and wives. They learned respect at any early age like I did….’responsible’ is their middle name…nothing was handed to them..some are still as adults going back to college for more education/degree…they all work at a job they earned…They came from the same hard working background that I came from….no excuse given, no welfare taken…hard work, respect, self-responsibility and Love of The Trinity kept us ALL going…we owe each other nothing…but a smile, hug and respect….too bad the hatred spewed gathers listeners rather than walking away and finding a more responsible better way….starting with self….
Too much hate is being stirred up for no reason- by all…..I know people of my race who I won’t have anything to do with because of their high opinion of themselves and their anger towards others (women) they don’t like…..nope, I know who my friends are…and they aren’t full of hate…..
I do believe a disproportionate number of black children are being shortchanged when it comes to educational opportunities, but it’s not because of race. It’s the huge urban school districts where unions negotiate teacher contracts as if they’re representing mega rock stars, and the larger portion of the educational dollars are being spent on benefits and perks for teachers (and union fees)instead of for the education of our youth. Schools like the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics demonstrate that black youths excel in a school environment that stresses personal responsibility while challenging them to see beyond what they have known. Far too many apathetic and under qualified teachers are failing when it comes to an opportunity to be a motivating inspiration to black youth, and often their parents were educated in the same type environment. Is it really a surprise when under-nourished minds make role models out of people like Sharpton and Jackson, who basically preach a self-defeating message: “Everything that happens to you is because you’re black; you are a skin color.” I firmly believe little will change in urban black communities until we demand that the educational dollars going into them be used to give all children a well rounded education with a broader view of their place in the world.
Only one thing I will say for Obama, he didn’t start the welfare problem with the black people. Since welfare has given the blacks a crutch to lean on, too many of them have stayed there on the plantation and bemoaned the efforts of King and his minions to help them. They would rather collect a check and sell drugs to get all the gold teeth and chains they wear. I see too many of them standing around flashing their gold smiles, giving one finger salutes, speaking in ebonics. They think they are so tough with their pants at half mast mocking the whities. Half of them wouldn’t last one week in the military. Anyway I wouldn’t want to have one in my unit. In the service I had the oportunity to make some of the best friends I have. They were a different breed from today’s blacks. Now the Obama’s, Jackson’s and the Sharpton’s have them under their thumbs. Just too bad they can’t think for themselves. They folllow like lambs to the slaughter. God have mercy on their souls.
Well said. I often share your post on FB but I am afraid to share this one. I have friends (White & Black) who ‘play’ the race card at every opportunity. Most of them are liberals who, like Obama, will do ANYTHING & EVERYTHING to try to assure his reelection.
Thank you for your comments. I am so thankful that I found your website.
Dixielee….I cannot forget the response given when a woman was asked where does Obama get the money for her welfare and whatever else she wanted from him…..Her response? “I don’t know…FROM HIS STASH, I guess! As far as I’m concerned, That says it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I understand the Jacksons and the Sharptons constant race baiting. If they didn’t have their hatred to sell, they wouldn’t be qualified to flip burgers. They live like kings on the hatred of whites by blacks that follow their “leadership”. A case in point is the Zimmerman case currently the red meat of the racists and news media. I’ve lived in the South most of my life and never heard the term “white Mexican” until it was found that Zimmerman is of mixed heritage. There is the label “guerro” (probably misspelled) that loosely means a fair skinned or blue eyed Mexican, but that is as close to “white Mexican” as I’ve ever heard. If Zimmerman is a “white Mexican”, then isn’t Obama a “white African” (or Hawaiian)?
I think that a great deal of today’s racial problems are generated by people like Jackson and Sharpton who encourage an “in your face” attitude. If anyone is challenged, aren’t you more likely to be hostile? I’m not going to try to prove that I’m not a racist by saying that I have black friends, but I do (is that an oxymoron). I’ll admit that I do have an intense dislike of a certain black man and his wife.
As near as I can tell, getting along beats the heck out of stiff legging around people. There’s no reason for it if you just leave it alone.
Michael, A few years ago I was teaching speech at the community college in Omaha and had five black girls who wanted to do what we called an encounter on the subject of welfare. Two out of the five had illegitimate children. After their presentation, we had a Q and A. I asked them where welfare came from and they gave me the standard answers about signing up, going to the welfare office to pick up their checks etc. Five times I asked them the same question, “Where does welfare come from?” Finally, totally stumped, they said they really didn’t know. This is how I explained it to them.
“What if, every morning you had to get up, get dressed, dress your children and then go door to door in your neighborhood and ask your neighbors for money to sustain you and your children for that day, Would you do it?” Their answers were “No, why would we want to do that?” And I said, “That’s welfare. You ask your neighbors to go out and get jobs so they can pay taxes so you can live for another day. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s snowing, raining, sleeting etc. You still will have to go beg for money from your neighbors every day.” No one had ever said it like it is and they were stunned.
This is a lot of the problem. The people who live off of the efforts of others, neither understand where the money comes from nor do far too many of them care. But what do we expect of a society that demands such supports for ills that were perpetrated against their ancestors?
Isn’t it time to live in the 21st century instead of hiding out in the 17th as an excuse for not being responsible for personal actions? I, for one, am sick and tired of being blamed for actions neither I nor my ancestors had anything to do with. I am sick and tired of people using drugs, booze, sex and all of the other ills of the Black community just because a few men and women, all of whom are living in very comfortable circumstances, to constantly tell their race how they need to wreck vengeance on millions of people who have never been responsible for the self-imposed ills of their community.
I am sick and tired of listening to stupid excuses for why so many people with the potential intellect to be productive citizens of this great country, insist on living in slums, creating children who are totally un-nurtured by a two parent household and whose parents live lives controlled by the basest of desired and actions because of some so-called injustices that have not existed for forty years.
Every available door has been opened, but the responsibility for stepping through that door rests not with white people, but with those self-same people who demand so much without giving anything. And that is a crying shame.
But if honor is never taught, there is no way it can be learned? If responsibility is never encouraged how can children be encouraged to be responsible? If women are treated like whores how can we hope that they will not believe they are whores and thus live lives similar to that lifestyle? If men are without the benefits of a responsible father, how can we hope they will act like responsible fathers? But these are the things that are exactly the problems of so many in the Black communities.
As we both know, all of these things are not the result of white people, but rather those in the Black communities who, in their desire to blame others, encourage their brothers to destroy their homes, wives, children and themselves and no amount of welfare payments will ever correct these ailments.
God bless you Mychal.
I value your comments and insights as much as anybody else I read on. Reading this message about self segregation makes me want to work harder to fellowship those around me. I have lived in the poorer areas of the Southeast and in Los Angeles and I have seen this problem first hand. There are many good, intelligent, people in these areas who stop themselves from progressing from a lack of vision. I wish there was a way to communicate to them and explain the way to success. There are a lot of people with tremendous potential who hold themselves down simply from not seeing the whole picture. It is impossible to see or understand something if a person is unable to comprehend it in the first place.
Thank you, Mychal, for another very insightful and accurate assessment of today’s culture. Of all the groups in our “melting pot” country, blacks seem the most clannish and least assimilated, even though they were given every opportunity to do so. There was a time and need for NAACP, but no longer. Yet it hangs on and continues to raise issues that don’t exist. They don’t talk about reverse discrimination and how, for many years, in the name of equality, whites were denied jobs and they were given to lesser (or not) qualified blacks and women. I bristle every time I hear mention of the Congressional Black Caucus! This group is divisive and flames the fires of racism. They are not part of the body of Congress, but their own self-serving group. I think Dr. King would be apalled. Instead of elected representatives in Congress working together as AMERICANS, they fall back to the least common denominator, and as a result, the minority groups work against the greater good. I put women’s groups in this same category. And of course, Obama is the worst. He has separated this country into angry groups who work against each other, instead of all of us pulling together for the greater good. It makes me sick to see what has happened to our country. And I think Dr. King, if he were here today, would fight this tyranny too! Thank you for this forum. And may the Obama Team rot in hell before they take you away from us!
Exactly. I’m sure Mr. King would be
the first one to agree with Mychal and
the rest of us.
Mychal,
Thank you for expanding my vocabulary.
Mr. Massie,
I love your columns.
Thank you once again for expressing so well what I feel in my heart. I often quote you as well as refer others to your site on a daily basis. In fact, I borrowed from today’s column for my facebook status:
“It seems that government and society has confused the same unencumbered opportunity for all with a lowering of expectations without accountability. The former is a wonderful thing… the second is suicide for the individual as well as the nation.”
Please keep up the good work.
Jamie