Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!
That would be great, but that isn't the world in which we live. Our society isn't as close to color (race/gender/etc) blind as we'd like to believe. And while Dr. King's dream is a noble one for which we should strive, the world still needs "black leaders" and "women leaders" and so on so that children have role models. Take soccer for an example. Little girls don't look at Landon Donovan and think, "That can be me one day." But they do look at Abby Wambach or Ashley Morgan and believe that can be them (just as those players once looked at Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers and thought the same thing).
On the other hand, a "black leader" (role model) need not be black and a "white leader" need not be white. When Bobby Kennedy spoke the night King was killed (and if you haven't heard his remarks, I highly recommend it) he was a "black leader." People didn't want to "Be Like Mike" because he was black, but because he was good.
The issue isn't an easy one and I'm quite conflicted, but the bottom line is that we as a nation are not nearly as close to fulfilling Dr. King's dream as we think we are.
In certain instances, perhaps. Sports has always been an exception. Lots of racist whites really enjoyed Joe Louis pounding the sh*t out of Max Schmeling. But they wouldn't have sat down with him in a bar over a pitcher. Besides "role model" and "leader" are not always synonymous.
Nobody in the MSM has suggested we need "white leaders." But we do need leaders "representing" other groups. The enormous growth in the number of African American elected officials has not significantly diminished this perception--that we need "black leaders," to give "balance" to our coverage of current events. And the people to whom the MSM have traditiionally gravitated are scoundrels and fourflushers like the "Reverands." Jackson, for instance, still maintains he held MLK's head after he was shot in Memphis. That's only slightly a lie, read Ralph David Abernathy's book. But that lie started him on his career as America's foremost black extortionist. Similarly, Sharpton's career started out with the Tawana Brawley hoax and morphed into people being fatally shot and burned to death. Now, with his show on MSNBC, he has become what he aspired to be: "The baddest n****r in New York." Congratulations.
Tell me, when we have black presidents, supreme court justices, cabinet members, governors, mayors, police chiefs, sheriffs et al, why do we need "black leaders?" We've got "black leaders." Because the "leadership" that's referred to here is maintaining the creaking edifice of the "great society," at least in attitude. To perpetuate the "give me the money" attitudes. To reinforce the stereotypes that minority folks are always the victims of white racism. To make worse any example of racial friction--to make them up, if necessary. To condemn any black person who speaks out about personal responsibility (except for Farakhan). To enrich themselves. Mickey Leland was a black Houston congressman who replaced Barbara Jordan. When Mickey was killed bringing relief aid to victims in South America, a slug by the name of Craig Washington was elected to replace him. In his post election news conference, Washington thanked the people of Houston for sending him to congress "for 20 years." Well, there's a dude who has his priorities straight.
The fact is, we'll never be able to have a society where race is not a consideration. Racism is not and should not be illegal. We are allowed to think and speak as we choose, no matter how ignorant and mean spirited the reasons. The First Amendment protects Al Sharpton AND David Duke. And that is as it should be. And congressional Black Caucuses and people like "the Reverands" have no interest in eliminating race based friction in our society. Exactly the opposite. The extent to which race based frictions diminish is the extent to which they become even more irrelevant. They are the status quo. And that's what they want to protect and maintain at all costs. Who, for instance, are the bitterest critics of our first AA president? When you have a repulsive creature like Maxine Waters referring to the LA riots as a "rebellion," you have come face to face with racism on a par with Bull Connor in Birmingham. Yet none dare call its name.
Are there some people with bad hearts? Of course. And some are white, some black, some Latino, etc. However, in the eyes of the MSM and our liberal friends, only racism by whites is of concern "because they're the majority, they run things, etc." Alan Dershowitz says "the law is a blunt instrument," and he's manifestly right. We have reached the outer limits of what can be done by legislatures and city councils to "fight racism." Our college campuses are awash in speech codes and various efforts to indoctrinate students into the prevailing PC beliefs. A few years ago the chapter of my fraternity at a California school (San Jose State?) got into big PC trouble for having a Mexican themed party. They put out a flyer which had artwork of a guy in a serape and sombrero. This, of course, generated the usual PC sh*t storm. It was interesting to watch the Latino president of the chapter defend himself against allegations of bias against Latinos.
Not all prejudices are race based. Remember the Torquemada-like glee with which the PC troopers went to the mattresses against the Duke LAX team. They were white, of course. But they were also well off and jocks! That's the PC equivalent of hitting for the cycle. And some very liberal Duke faculty and students just skipped over that annoying concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and wanted to string those boys up by their b*lls. Even after that horrific miscarriage of justice was revealed, with the DA disbarred and sent to prison, we still had posters here whose position was: "they must have been guilty of something." On college campuses it's not unprecedented to have people who don't like something in print, to steal the entire run of the student newspaper. Presumably in the name of "openness" or "freedom of speech" or something.
My bottom line is we've come a long way. And these malignant attitudes have largely disappeared. But in a free country we'll never be able to entirely put an end to people "thinking bad," nor should we try.
