About 20 yrs ago I really thought America had reached a post-racial time. That it was no longer remarrkable that the guy in the office next to you was black, that your kid played with black kids at school, that black people dominated golf and tennis. What happened? Sadly, I think fomenting greivance has a purpose. Money and power. Once again, we have segregated dorms on campus, because black students don’t want to room with whites. We have corporate training sessions vilifying white people. We have white school children being told to confess their sin of white skin.
It is sad to say now, but blacks have become the new racists.
Some nice essays for the most part. But the reality is the race hustlers have come to town and fomented - racism. They’ve elevated criminals like St Floyd and the gentle Giant Brown and Obamas son Trayvon that we are all supposed to bow before. They’ve made tons of money on grievance. BLM and antifa (yes even though they are mainly pasty faced non muscled white kids) have made hay on race. I could go on but until the black community gets it’s house in order and rejects the race baiters, it’s going to continue to be a bumpy ride. Which is too bad because pre Obama, race/racism was losing speed.
"There is no dignity in being America’s eternal guilt mascot. "
I just loved that line. Black History Month remains important because the failure to teach our children about the real contributions of our Black citizens to America's story robs them of dignity and cheats us all. Just as the 1619 Project is a pack of leftist lies. So, yeah, Black History Month is still important to everyone because acknowledging the real contributions of Black citizens strengthens us. Just as the lies of the 1619 Project are intended to weaken us. And make no mistake, the 1619 Project is a pack of corrosive lies intended to do just that. Even the 1619 claim is false because the first slaves in America were landed by the Spanish in Florida in the 1500s. Neither was our Revolution fought to preserve slavery. Washington was already in Boston leading the Army before Dunmore threatened to free the slaves in VA. Moreover, slavery had been outlawed in many states before the Constitution was even adopted. We were not conceived in "original sin," our Revolution was not fought to preserve slavery and we have worked hard to improve our imperfect Union. We can all celebrate that. And ask why the 1619 Project commences with a lie and never stops lying.
A very interesting array of thoughtful viewpoints.
Mr. Noah Harris wrote: "We [black people] hope for a time when the color of our skin is merely what makes us special ...".
Does he hope for a time when the color of everyone's skin makes everyone "special"? This seems weird - and if it's weird to hope that the color of my skin makes me "special," it's weird to hope the color of Mr. Harris's skin will make him "special."
I don't like or dislike anyone based on an immutable characteristic like height, sex, weight, or melanin. What I AM, though, is exhausted. Specifically, I'm exhausted with the "racist" nonsense, and even more so by the professional soreheads and race hustlers who make their livings by keeping it alive. It's like Reagan said:
"You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won't become a German or a Turk. But anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American."
A-bloody-men.
Look - I and the vast majority of Americans are well and truly fed up with this. Just get your ass out of bed, go to work, raise your children, stay out of trouble and keep your kids out of trouble, and I don't care who you are - you're in. Now, can we drop it? America has much bigger fish to fry.
The sad thing today is that it seems like most powerful institutions don't want to move beyond race, they want to emphasize and magnify it. Which is only going to divide us further, because it leads to a hunt for transgressions, no matter how small. Which leads to us being afraid of interacting for fear of doing something wrong. And all that does is to keep us apart, creating an adversarial and fearful situation.
The sad truth of the matter is that American Blacks have separated their own people into two classes, and NOT because of skin color nor point of origen. The designation is now CULTURAL!
Those who have succeeded in life, for the most part, are considered to be "white adjacent", or "acting white", while others who embrace the characteristics of language, self-designation, music, clothing, etc. are really CULTURAL and have little to do with race.
How else can one explain that successful Blacks are criticized for the way they speak, the way they choose to present themselves, and their academic and social successes as anathema to the "Black experience"? Case in point: Condi Rice. An academic who attained a high ranking in government and academia, Rice has been vilified as being a sell-out.
And consider others, such as Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, and on, and on. As a past middle aged white man, I lack the perspective of many Black citizens who are not as prosperous as myself, but I CAN see those of the Black citizenry who are true Americans, Black, and powerful. The question in MY mind is, "Why hang on to a cultural legacy of failure and despair when there are so many examples to emulate?"
Am I short sighted or ignorant, or just plain blind? I think not.
We solved our civil rights dilemma because of the foundation idea of America that all men are created equal under the eyes of our creator, and that individual freedom is our divine right.
And then we fell back over the top in adopting the soft bigotry of low expectations and another try at just a different type of racial bias that is the same as the previous repackaged as just another form of virtue.
All we need to do is to move back to the foundation principle of individual equality. Nobody should celebrate "black" anything... all should celebrate American everything.
So often the history of African enslavement in the United States is taught as something unique, the "American original sin." I really think few people today realize that all peoples of all cultures have held other people as slaves, since the dawn of time until Western Civilization put an end to it, for the most part, in the 19th Century. The first slaves were not brought to America from Africa in 1619. By that time, Africans had been held as slaves in the Caribbean and South America for a long time. But they weren't the first, either, as members of First Nations tribes had held captives from other tribes as slaves for thousands of years. And, by the way, Africans had held other Africans as slaves forever, as well. The Spartans, the Romans -- Europeans enslaved other Europeans long before they discovered Black people. Perhaps it would help if we replaced, "white people are bad because their ancestors kept people as slaves," with just "slavery is bad."
I am in the middle of reading John McWhorter's book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. I am happy I picked it up as it is helping to explain the origins of this absurdity and it confirms what I have always thought.
The problem we are facing today is because we mistakenly allowed the criminalization of an emotion. Hate should not be a crime because it cannot be proven what someone else is feeling. But Pandora's box was opened and now we have a mess to deal with. The weapon of destroying someone with the label of "hater" (racist, misogynist, LGBTQ.... bigot (insert sanctioned victim group) is now nuclear and in the hands of the most unstable and deranged people. They have the rest of us running in fear.
What do we do?
I am firing off a letter to all of the GOP leadership in GOP-led states to enhance their hate crime laws to allow fast-tracked civil damage claims for libel and slander for being claimed to be a racist or any other of their woke attack labels. It is because of the social economic harm now at risk by those labels that we need a tonic to counter the rampant abuse from people using them to destroy others simply because there is a disagreement over politics.
Everyone will still have free speech, but we will have return consequences for those so freely attempting to brand others as the most vile of terms that have become justification for personal destruction.
What can be more “racist” then months for races? I loved Trumps idea of a park of heroes. We need more statues, not tearing down statues. EmittTill and his mother need a statue. Harriet Tubman needs a statue. Neither of these because they are black but rather because they showed heroic courage. They are role models as human beings.
I have been saying for years that I would vote for Condoleezza Rice in a heartbeat if she ran for president. Now, more than ever, quite arguably, I really believe that this moment in history cries out for her brilliance, her moral integrity, and her maturity, among many other impressive qualifications. Never mind that she's undoubtedly a much better piano player than Harry Truman was...
About 20 yrs ago I really thought America had reached a post-racial time. That it was no longer remarrkable that the guy in the office next to you was black, that your kid played with black kids at school, that black people dominated golf and tennis. What happened? Sadly, I think fomenting greivance has a purpose. Money and power. Once again, we have segregated dorms on campus, because black students don’t want to room with whites. We have corporate training sessions vilifying white people. We have white school children being told to confess their sin of white skin.
It is sad to say now, but blacks have become the new racists.
Some nice essays for the most part. But the reality is the race hustlers have come to town and fomented - racism. They’ve elevated criminals like St Floyd and the gentle Giant Brown and Obamas son Trayvon that we are all supposed to bow before. They’ve made tons of money on grievance. BLM and antifa (yes even though they are mainly pasty faced non muscled white kids) have made hay on race. I could go on but until the black community gets it’s house in order and rejects the race baiters, it’s going to continue to be a bumpy ride. Which is too bad because pre Obama, race/racism was losing speed.
"There is no dignity in being America’s eternal guilt mascot. "
I just loved that line. Black History Month remains important because the failure to teach our children about the real contributions of our Black citizens to America's story robs them of dignity and cheats us all. Just as the 1619 Project is a pack of leftist lies. So, yeah, Black History Month is still important to everyone because acknowledging the real contributions of Black citizens strengthens us. Just as the lies of the 1619 Project are intended to weaken us. And make no mistake, the 1619 Project is a pack of corrosive lies intended to do just that. Even the 1619 claim is false because the first slaves in America were landed by the Spanish in Florida in the 1500s. Neither was our Revolution fought to preserve slavery. Washington was already in Boston leading the Army before Dunmore threatened to free the slaves in VA. Moreover, slavery had been outlawed in many states before the Constitution was even adopted. We were not conceived in "original sin," our Revolution was not fought to preserve slavery and we have worked hard to improve our imperfect Union. We can all celebrate that. And ask why the 1619 Project commences with a lie and never stops lying.
A very interesting array of thoughtful viewpoints.
Mr. Noah Harris wrote: "We [black people] hope for a time when the color of our skin is merely what makes us special ...".
Does he hope for a time when the color of everyone's skin makes everyone "special"? This seems weird - and if it's weird to hope that the color of my skin makes me "special," it's weird to hope the color of Mr. Harris's skin will make him "special."
I don't like or dislike anyone based on an immutable characteristic like height, sex, weight, or melanin. What I AM, though, is exhausted. Specifically, I'm exhausted with the "racist" nonsense, and even more so by the professional soreheads and race hustlers who make their livings by keeping it alive. It's like Reagan said:
"You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won't become a German or a Turk. But anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American."
A-bloody-men.
Look - I and the vast majority of Americans are well and truly fed up with this. Just get your ass out of bed, go to work, raise your children, stay out of trouble and keep your kids out of trouble, and I don't care who you are - you're in. Now, can we drop it? America has much bigger fish to fry.
The sad thing today is that it seems like most powerful institutions don't want to move beyond race, they want to emphasize and magnify it. Which is only going to divide us further, because it leads to a hunt for transgressions, no matter how small. Which leads to us being afraid of interacting for fear of doing something wrong. And all that does is to keep us apart, creating an adversarial and fearful situation.
The sad truth of the matter is that American Blacks have separated their own people into two classes, and NOT because of skin color nor point of origen. The designation is now CULTURAL!
Those who have succeeded in life, for the most part, are considered to be "white adjacent", or "acting white", while others who embrace the characteristics of language, self-designation, music, clothing, etc. are really CULTURAL and have little to do with race.
How else can one explain that successful Blacks are criticized for the way they speak, the way they choose to present themselves, and their academic and social successes as anathema to the "Black experience"? Case in point: Condi Rice. An academic who attained a high ranking in government and academia, Rice has been vilified as being a sell-out.
And consider others, such as Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, and on, and on. As a past middle aged white man, I lack the perspective of many Black citizens who are not as prosperous as myself, but I CAN see those of the Black citizenry who are true Americans, Black, and powerful. The question in MY mind is, "Why hang on to a cultural legacy of failure and despair when there are so many examples to emulate?"
Am I short sighted or ignorant, or just plain blind? I think not.
We all bleed the same color.
We solved our civil rights dilemma because of the foundation idea of America that all men are created equal under the eyes of our creator, and that individual freedom is our divine right.
And then we fell back over the top in adopting the soft bigotry of low expectations and another try at just a different type of racial bias that is the same as the previous repackaged as just another form of virtue.
All we need to do is to move back to the foundation principle of individual equality. Nobody should celebrate "black" anything... all should celebrate American everything.
So often the history of African enslavement in the United States is taught as something unique, the "American original sin." I really think few people today realize that all peoples of all cultures have held other people as slaves, since the dawn of time until Western Civilization put an end to it, for the most part, in the 19th Century. The first slaves were not brought to America from Africa in 1619. By that time, Africans had been held as slaves in the Caribbean and South America for a long time. But they weren't the first, either, as members of First Nations tribes had held captives from other tribes as slaves for thousands of years. And, by the way, Africans had held other Africans as slaves forever, as well. The Spartans, the Romans -- Europeans enslaved other Europeans long before they discovered Black people. Perhaps it would help if we replaced, "white people are bad because their ancestors kept people as slaves," with just "slavery is bad."
Subscribing to Common Sense might be the best thing I've ever done. Thank you!
I am in the middle of reading John McWhorter's book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. I am happy I picked it up as it is helping to explain the origins of this absurdity and it confirms what I have always thought.
The problem we are facing today is because we mistakenly allowed the criminalization of an emotion. Hate should not be a crime because it cannot be proven what someone else is feeling. But Pandora's box was opened and now we have a mess to deal with. The weapon of destroying someone with the label of "hater" (racist, misogynist, LGBTQ.... bigot (insert sanctioned victim group) is now nuclear and in the hands of the most unstable and deranged people. They have the rest of us running in fear.
What do we do?
I am firing off a letter to all of the GOP leadership in GOP-led states to enhance their hate crime laws to allow fast-tracked civil damage claims for libel and slander for being claimed to be a racist or any other of their woke attack labels. It is because of the social economic harm now at risk by those labels that we need a tonic to counter the rampant abuse from people using them to destroy others simply because there is a disagreement over politics.
Everyone will still have free speech, but we will have return consequences for those so freely attempting to brand others as the most vile of terms that have become justification for personal destruction.
What can be more “racist” then months for races? I loved Trumps idea of a park of heroes. We need more statues, not tearing down statues. EmittTill and his mother need a statue. Harriet Tubman needs a statue. Neither of these because they are black but rather because they showed heroic courage. They are role models as human beings.
This is one of the best features of Common Sense, the symposiums of diverse perspectives on a complex topic. More please!
I have been saying for years that I would vote for Condoleezza Rice in a heartbeat if she ran for president. Now, more than ever, quite arguably, I really believe that this moment in history cries out for her brilliance, her moral integrity, and her maturity, among many other impressive qualifications. Never mind that she's undoubtedly a much better piano player than Harry Truman was...
Morgan Freeman has the proper opinion on Black History Month. Youtube it.