What I Would Like Romney To Have Told NAACP

I’m not a Romney supporter, but I gotta give a hat tip when a hat tip is due. I applaud Romney for not only going to the NAACP Convention, but also for staring them unflinchingly in the eye. However, his message was not quite the message the people gathered there needed to hear.

Romney said: “If someone had told us in the 1950’s or 60’s that a black citizen would serve as the forty-fourth president, we would have been proud and many would have been surprised.”

I would have told the people that I attended a high school in a cloistered, insulated, bigoted little town where the “N” word was one of the few dozen words that comprised the lexicon of several of my classmates. But despite the limited grammatical skills of those few classmates, when we were told at graduation we could be whatever we wanted to be I knew it was true. I knew there was no limit to what I could be or become because I had teachers who had taught me as a student who was there to learn and nothing else was acceptable.

I was educated because it was their job to teach and it was my job to learn. Their teaching had nothing to do with the color of my skin; it had to do with our mutual responsibilities, i.e., they taught and I had better learn. I knew I could be anything I wanted to be because my family had instilled in me the confidence that, if I worked hard enough, I could make something of myself. I was taught that I alone stood in the way of achievement not white people scheming to hold me back.

I would like to have heard Romney ask the people gathered there how many potential black presidents would there be today if 17,653,000 blacks had not been murdered by abortion between 1973 and 2011? I would like to have heard Romney make the point that if abortion had been legal when Obama’s mother was pregnant with him the chances are very good he would never have been born.

I would like to have heard Romney tell them that the greatest threat to the future of blacks in America is their declining numbers because of abortion.

Romney also said: “If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, black families could send their sons and daughters to public schools that truly offer the hope of a better life. Instead, for generations, the African-American community has been waiting and waiting for that promise to be kept. Today, black children are 17 percent of students nationwide – but they are 42 percent of the students in our worst-performing schools. Our society sends them into mediocre schools and expects them to perform with excellence.”

I would like to have heard him say that it is long past time for them to stop “waiting and waiting” and to take control of the failing schools themselves. I would like to have heard him challenge them to demand nothing less than the highest standard of quality from those entrusted with the education of the children. He should have told them that children are the future of America, and that between abortion and a failed educational system the future for many blacks is abysmal. He should have said it’s not white people, conservatives or the Tea Party who threaten blacks–it’s Planned Parenthood and failed educational systems. He should have added that it’s not more money that’s needed to fix the educational system: it’s their lack of demand for accountability from teachers and teacher’ unions.

I would like to have heard Romney tell the people that it is up to them–that they should be at the school board meetings and that being black doesn’t exempt black teachers and black school officials from criticism for failure. He should have also told them that allowing illegal alien children, who speak little (if any) English, into their schools is a crime against the ability of their children to be educated in a healthy learning environment.

I would have also told them that if they need a photo ID and Social Security number to attend a Michelle Obama book signing, it is hardly unfair to require a photo ID to vote.