THROUGH RACE COLORED GLASSES 2/18/08

A gentleman posted a series of comments on to my column of last week -- "And Now, Back to the Frontrunner". True to form, anonymous didn't waste any time claiming that the GOP and Conservatives (by extension, I would assume, he would also include me) are the home of racism today.


He started out by taking issue with the Democratic Party's historical relationship with various racist policies in America's past, to wit: slavery, Jim Crowe, the Klan, segregation, etc. His comments seemed to have exposed a bit of racism on his part however: "...see, when they [the Democrats, I think] moved away from that [racist policies, maybe?], all the honkies went GOPiggy."


In later posts, he referred to Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice as "Toms". So, apparently, his racist views aren't just aimed at whites, but also to blacks who don't stay on the Democratic plantation regarding "proper" Liberal ideology.


I thought that today, I would expand upon my claim that it is really the Democratic Party, with its irrational addiction to identity politics, which is the racist party, as opposed to the color blind Conservatives, who look at people as individuals, regardless of the color of their skin.


How can the Democrats be racist? I mean, more that 90% of the black vote goes to the Democrats every time. What is it about them that would make me think the Party is racist?


First, a bit of history:

• The Klan was started by the Democratic Party to undo or minimize the efforts of Reconstruction.


• Jim Crowe laws were promulgated by Democrats.


• Lyndon Baines Johnson, during the 1950's, spent most of his congressional career obstructing the Civil Rights Act, a bill that was supported, by the way, by Dwight Eisenhower.


• It was Eisenhower who sent the troops into the South to enforce desegragation.


• John F. Kennedy had his brother, Bobby who was then the head of the Justice Department, spy on Martin Luther King in an effort to discredit this Civil Rights pioneer.


• Democrats resisted the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Al Gore's Dad led that obstruction. Had it not been for Republican support, it would never have passed.


• More recently, we have Sen. Robert Byrd, who has never renounced his membership and leadership in the Klan. Strom Thurmond, on the other hand, not only quit the Klan very publicly, he switched parties to distance himself from them.

Other, superior minds than my own, have catalogued the specific policies which, while ostensibly claimed to be helpful to minorities, actually did them more harm than good. I suggest the writings of Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Charles Murray for a more indepth look at Liberal calumny diguised as "compassion".

And to the specious claims that it is the Conservative end of the political spectrum that is the new home of racism in America? Let's look at a few examples:

• Opposition to affirmative action? That's merely discrimination against other folks, rather than traditional discrimination. (More on this later)


• Failure to embrace identity politics? I thought that was what Martin Luther King was talking about: "...judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character..." What's racist about that?
  
• Tax cuts? Despite the claims of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D.NY) -- "It's not 'spic' or 'nigger' anymore. They say, 'Let's cut taxes.'" -- tax cuts have absolutely no racial or ethnic component. In fact, tax cuts are good for minorities in that they spur the economy and create more jobs, while allowing wage earners to actually keep more of their money.
  
• And what is so racist about appointing the first and second black Secretaries of State, not to mention the first black female National Security Advisor? Not even Bill Clinton, dubbed by Toni Morrison as "America's first black President" can make that claim.

No, anonymous doesn't recognize any of these things as being color blind. Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice are nothing but Uncle Toms, in anonymous' exalted opinion. You see, they have strayed from the Liberal Plantation of Thought Control to actually embrace individual effort and an escape from identity politics.

Now, for more on affirmative action. This is nothing short of tit-for-tat, "You-hit-me-I-hit-you" childishness. Worse, it doesn't even strike at the actual perpetrators of the crimes committed against American blacks in our past. It is merely striking out at anyone who who looks like the real criminals, most of whom are, thankfully, dead.

Consider it this way: Let's say that my great-great grandfather robbed banks. This information was widely known and documented but, for whatever reason, he was never prosecuted or imprisoned for his misdeeds. Now, 100 or more years later, we are finally going to do something to set this terrible injustice right. So, we are going to put you in jail, since my ancestor is beyond the ken of our justice system.

Wouldn't that, in an of itself, also be an injustice? After all, neither you nor your ancestors robbed any banks. Why should you have to pay for the crimes of someone else's ancestors?

Well, the same argument can be made about affirmative action. While I am white, my ancestors weren't even in America during the days of slavery, nor were they involved in any of the Jim Crowe laws. I have never engaged in bigotry and, to the best of my knowledge, neither have any of my ancestors. So why should I have the deck stacked against me to right some wrong that had nothing to do with me or my ancestors?

And what does affirmative action say about the folks it purports to help? "You're too stupid and too incapable to deal with life on life's terms, so we enlightened Liberals are going to help you." Wow! That's uplifing, isn't it? No wonder Thomas Sowell often expresses gratitude that he was educated before it became cool to like black people!

Someone (I forget who, but it wasn't me) once said that affirmative action is the ultimate in masochism, since it forces someone who thinks you're a turkey to hire you anyway. How true that is!

Look, racism is not only bad, it's stupid. I don't want to see any kind of racism, whether we're talking about the Bad Old Days of Jim Crowe or the supposedly enlightened days of affirmative action.

Furthermore, I have decided to limit anonymous and his postings to avoid giving a forum to his bigotted and scatological screeds. If he wants wants to make a point or an argument and can control his demons, then, by all means, he will be heard.

If not, I reserve the right to silence him on my blog. Let's just hope he can act like an adult.

Copyright Feb. 18th, 2008

Looking Through Race Colored Glasses

Today, the Washington Post published an analysis of the fallout from Michigan voters approving Proposition 2, which will end all racial preferences in hiring and promoting employees, contracting, and entry into schools. The vote was decisive, fully 58% of voters agreed that affirmative action should be banned. But don't worry, my Friends on the Left! The government of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers has rushed into the breech to save racism --Sorry! I meant equal opportunity for minorities.

I know that some folks might question my Politically Incorrect humor in that last sentence, so let me explain. I am a Conservative. I freely admit it. I am not a racist. I have no opinion, one way or the other regarding anyone's race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Of course, I expect the for same for me in return.

I believe that racism is not only wrong. It is stupid, stupid, stupid. It makes no sense personally, economically, or politically.

Therefore, I am steadfastly opposed to affirmative action in all its ways, shapes and forms.

Why? Because affirmative action is nothing less than racism and discrimination. It is wrong and stupid whether it is expressed against blacks and other minorities or against white males.

I happen to be in good company, since Michigan and California both agreed with what I wrote above. Indeed, they agree in overwhelming numbers.

Now, the Left, as is its wont, is trying to find ways around the Will of the People. The ACLU, no surprise, is wading in with litigation that will attempt to slow or reverse implementation of Proposition 2. Kary L. Moss, the executive director of the ACLU in Michigan describes a series of "both offensive and defensive lawsuits" to determine the bill's meaning for Michigan

Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor of Detroit, is trying to limit city contracts to only those from within the city, which is 80% black. As much as he doesn't like what the voters want, though, his spokesman, Matt Allen, seems to think it's all a done deal: "As of December 22, there can be no more gender or race preferences."

According to the Washington Post, analysts believe that racism, and fear that whites are losing out in a state where the economy hasn't been quite as strong as elsewhere, was what tipped the balance in favor of Proposition 2. Linda Parker, Michigan's director of the Department of Civil Rights claimed that proponents "sold a bill of goods to Michigan voters, and played into the fears we have".

Look, here's the problem with what Ms. Parker said: she is playing upon the stereotype that anyone who's opposed to affirmative action (or anything promoted by the Left) is full of hate, fear, bigotry, and evil. Ms. Parker, in other words, is engaging in stereotyping in a racist and bigoted manner.

How dare I say that? Easily! I look into myself, and see the lie that Ms. Parker and all those Nanny Staters on the Left tell themselves and the undereducated.

In 1994, one of Newt Gingrich's advisers describe affirmative action as a form of sado-masochism in that you get to force someone who thinks you're a turkey to hire you anyway.

There is another way to look at affirmative action. Let's say that my great-grandfather was a known bank robber. It was an established fact that he robbed banks but he was never brought to justice. He died unpunished for his crimes and this was a great injustice. Therefore, we are going to put you in jail to make up for the injustice of my great-grandfather's life of crime. This will make me feel better, since I wouldn't have the guilt of my forebear's sins. And you will feel better since you are helping to correct the tragic injustices of the past.

And Liberals will feel better because they have found a whole new victim class to exploit and ensnare on their plantation of the Nanny State.

Repeating a theme which I will visit time and again in this blog, a truly free market would eliminate the effects of racism exposing the economic stupidity of bigotry.

Consider this thought experiment: You and I each own a business, selling widgets, say. We are competitors, each vying for a larger slice of the economic pie. I, for the purposes of this experiment, am bigoted against, say, purple people. I won't buy from them regardless of the price they offer, I won't sell to them regardless of how much they'd pay, I won't hire them regardless of how little they'd work for. You, on the other hand, only care about the green of the money. You'll buy from anyone who'll give you a good value for a good price. You'll sell to the highest bidder, regardless of color. And you'll hire the workers who give you the best return for your investments in their labor.

Now comes the crunch: Which one of us will still be in business ten, twenty, thirty years down the line? You, of course! You will out compete me at every turn. You will collect profits while I pile up debt.

So then, in a free market, what power did my bigotry bestow upon me? Absolutely nothing! That is the beauty of free markets. It equalizes everyone in terms of of opportunity, rather than the color of their skins or their gender, or... uhm, just about any other way the Left would like to divide us.

And what does affirmative action offer? Well, it offers hopelessness to their "favored" minorities, who are taught that they can not do for themselves without the Left's programs, it balkanizes us from each other in that we now become hyphenated Americans, and it cheats everyone because the incompetent are promoted beyond their abilities.

All of the above reasons are why affirmative action is stupid. Morally, it is every bit as reprehensible as the racism it seeks to remedy.

Bigotry, regardless of the motivations, is stupid and immoral. So let's put away our Race Colored Glasses!

Copyright Nov. 18th, 2006