In my previous two blogs I have traced the slavery and persecution of blacks in America up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and three amendments to the Constitution freed the blacks forever in the United States and the Civil Rights Act released them from the segregation forced upon them by the Jim Crow laws instigated by Southern Democrats. Considering that slaves were brought to the 13 colonies in the early 1600s, it may seem as if freeing them took a long time. But from virtually the very beginning, colonists, led by Quakers, Mennonites and followers of John Wesley, were speaking and writing against slavery and the slave trade. As I mentioned previously, one colony attempted to ban slavery, only to have the British authorities overturn their decision. Since the British themselves participated in the slave trade, and since slavery in their colonies was economically advantageous to them, they were not interested in the 1600 and 1700s in ending it. Thus it took the rebelling colonies, struggling to mold together a nation that included those who were pro-slavery and those who were anti-slavery to finally reach a boiling point less than one hundred years after the nation’s birth and begin a civil war that would end slavery forever in the United States.
Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which followed two Civil Rights Acts promoted by President Eisenhower (R) in 1957 and 1960 and watered down by Democrats before their passage), other laws have been passed protecting the rights of all Americans against discrimination in the workplace or elsewhere. Segregation exists today only at Berkley University in California (and at some other liberal colleges as well) which have “black only” dorms and “black graduations” supposedly to make blacks feel more comfortable. If this isn’t a form of thinly disguised racism, then the segregation of the South leading up to 1964 was not racism either. In fact, those like President Obama who claim that the “original sin” of the United States is “systemic racism,” are ignoring the facts.
The Washington Post recorded the results of a study by two Swedish economists who wondered if economic prosperity equated with racial tolerance. While some prosperous countries were very racially tolerant, they found to their surprise that others were not. On the other hand, many economically poor Hispanic countries were racially tolerant. They concluded that there was no correlation. What they did find, however, was that the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain along with several South American countries, were the most racially tolerant countries in the world. When asked who they would least want to live next door to them, 0 to 4.9% of respondents in these countries said they would not want to live next to someone of a different race. While it would be admirable to be able to do away with racism entirely, in a population of about 330,000,000 Americans, it would naïve to believe that some percentage, no matter how small, and whether black or white, dislikes others simply because of the color of their skin.
So, yes, there is racism in America. But there is not systemic racism. Racism has not been bred into the marrow of every white American alive in 2020. For one thing, millions of immigrants from Europe, Russia, and Scandinavia arrived in the U.S. following the emancipation of slaves, and their many million descendants never owned slaves. Slavery was not a way of life for them nor did most of them believe in the superiority of the white race over all others. In fact, only about 4% of Americans ever owned slaves even at the height of slavery, and most of those living in Northern states were fiercely against the practice. So racism is not bred into all white Americans.
And if systemic racism existed, it would mean that the systems of both government and culture exist to prevent the advancement of people of color. That is patently and obviously false. Let’s begin with sports. The majority of basketball and football players and a good number of baseball players are black. Blacks also participate in every other sport, though not in such large numbers. Many of the players earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and have become millionaires. They are admired and cheered by largely white audiences since over 70% of the population of the U.S. remains white. If systemic racism existed, those athletes would either not be allowed to play on the same teams as whites or would not be paid the huge salaries they are given and white Americans children would not have posters of Le Bron James and Michael Jordan on their bedroom walls.
Systemic racism would no doubt prevent blacks from advancing beyond menial positions in business. How is it, then, in a racist country are there 2.6 million black business owners? (BlackDemographics.com). And more than that, how is it possible that many of them should run huge corporations? Many blacks have been wildly successful in varying businesses including Oprah Winfrey of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Robert F. Smith who founded the Vista Equity Partners in 2000 and has since become a billionaire, Ursula Burns who became CEA of Xerox, Kenneth Frazier who became the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Herman Cain who was CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and also a presidential candidate. The list could go on and on. And while there are far more white billionaires in the country, there are also black billionaires, an accomplishment that would not be possible if the “system” was racist. And though Joe Biden vows to help those (blacks) who have been kept from becoming part of the middle class, according to the Brookings Institute, the Black middle class continues to grow all across the country. The “elites” on the coasts who perpetuate the myth of systemic racism ignore the prosperous black Americans, These “elites,” many of whom are themselves wealthy black Americans, seldom see the middle class which largely inhabit the large, Democratic-run metropolitan areas where blacks mostly live in inner city neighborhoods with limited opportunities and prevalent crime.
Systemic racism would also keep blacks from the field of medicine, for in a racist country, what white person would want to be treated by a black doctor? And yet there were over 40,000 black doctors, both male and female, in 2013, and they weren’t seeing only black patients. And how could Dr. Ben Carson become a world renowned neurosurgeon who performed the first ever separation of conjoined twins, then ran for the presidency, and is now serving as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in a country of systemic racism?
Former President Obama must not really believe in systemic racism, since in such a society he could never have been elected president. 70% of Americans are white and without the white vote, we would never have had a black president who, despite his scandal-filled administration, was reelected, largely because white Americans wanted to give him every opportunity to succeed. Systemic racism would certainly keep blacks out of positions of political power, yet in addition to a black president, 36 major cities with populations of more than 40,000 have black mayors, including Chicago, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Dallas. Many also have black prosecutors and black police chiefs. Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court is black. Numerous other judges are also black. Black members of Congress include Tim Scott, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and many others.
Systemic racism would mean that all systems, governmental and cultural, in the country deliberately and maliciously impede the advancement of blacks, and yet blacks succeed in every field. Certainly there are some areas in which they have not yet caught up with whites. Black employment lags behind white employment, yet during President Trump’s first three years in office, up until the Coronavirus caused the shutdown of the country, black unemployment was lower than it had ever been historically. During the housing collapse of 2008, more black families had subprime loans, but this was because former presidents had pushed banks into lending money, backed by the government, to families who did not have a down payment, savings, or a steady enough income to afford the home they were buying. Inner-city black children continue to attend schools that are segregated, not by law, but by the population of the communities in which they are located. These schools are menaced by gangs and drug dealers, and rarely are staffed by well-qualified teachers. Some years ago, the Chicago School System became so bad that the State of Illinois threatened to take over the running of the schools if things didn’t improve. The children in the inner-city schools come out of high school, if they finish at all, totally unfit to find a good paying job or to succeed in college. President Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy De Vos, has attempted to rectify this problem by pushing both Charter Schools and School Choice, but since major American cities are almost all run by Democrats and Democrats are heavily funded by the teachers’ unions who are solidly against allowing parents the opportunity to choose their child’s school, little progress has been made. Without a decent education, these children simply continue the cycle of poverty that they grew up in and the blame belongs squarely at the feet of the Democrats who run their cities.
And of course, what has recently brought the cries of “systemic racism” to the front again was the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Black Lives Matter immediately began protesting the death, and as usual, outside agitators bussed in Antifa and other left-wing groups and even purchased pallets of bricks to be delivered to convenient street corners. And so the looting, the burning, the murdering of innocents began. And why? Because the lie continues to be perpetuated by Democrats and by the media that blacks are deliberately hunted down and murdered by the police.
In fact, in 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise threatening the safety of the police or others. About a quarter or them were black which is far below the black crime rate. In 2018, the last year for which data is available, African-Americans committed 53% of known homicides (many go unsolved) and committed about 60% of robberies even though they only make up about 13% of the population. According to the Washington Post, the police fatally shot nine unarmed blacks and 19 unarmed whites in 2019, but the Post’s definition of “unarmed” is so broad as to include a suspect in Newark, N,J. who had a loaded handgun in his car during a police chase. Those nine unarmed black victims of police shootings represent 0.1% of all African-Americans killed in 2019. Yet a police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. Who are really the victims here? Susan Stamper Brown, a columnist from Alaska writes,” According to the FBI’s latest homicide statistics, I’m 11 times more likely to be killed by someone of my own brown complexion that a white person.” yet the Democrat and the media continue to tell everyone that all whites are racist and want to kill blacks.
Furthermore, as Walter E. Williams, a black columnist points out,” at the time of (Freddie) Gray’s death (in Baltimore), the mayor was black, as were the top two officials running the police department. The Maryland state attorney, who filed charges against the six officer defendants, was black. Of the six officers charged, three were black, as was the judge before whom two of the officers tried their cases. The majority in Baltimore’s City Council was black as was the United States attorney general and, of course, the president of the United States. This didn’t stop accusations of police misconduct. It didn’t stop rioting.” Two of the officers were acquitted, charges were dropped against the remaining officers, and Obama’s Department of Justice declined to press charges against any of them.
Systemic racism is a way to control the masses through fear of being labled, an excuse for the rioting, the looting, the burning and murders which tear at the fabric of our society. The bulk of the business that are looted are owned by minorities, so those who claim to be seeking justice for a fellow black are doing far more damage to their brothers and sisters than the police officers they are accusing of murder. And always, the Democrat Party stands by in silence or even encourages them, and Democrat governors turn a blind eye while Democrat mayors let the mobs roam freely. Why? Black conservative Sonnie Johnson explains it this way.” If they (the Democrats) want to be the party of the poor, they have to keep you poor.” Cynical, but perhaps true. They must convince blacks that they are victims and that they cannot help themselves or protect themselves against the evil police and general white population who are racist and hate them. Only the Democrat Party can save the blacks, they assure you, and that is why you must vote for them. But if the Democrat Party keeps on “saving” the black community much longer, there won’t be any black community left to save!
Viktor Frankl wrote that “There are only two races, the race of the decent and the race of the indecent.” With their support and instigation of the recent riots, the Democrat Party have shown themselves once again to be the race of the indecent.