Prejudice, Race, and the Hustle

Richard Cronin observes:

Just an observation about an understanding of race and my own ignorance.

This afternoon, while heading northbound, and waiting at the crossing of a major boulevard, I observed a car in the crossroad turning lane to come southbound. There were two black teenagers leaning into a man’s car in the turning lane and gesticulating. I assumed that they were harassing and looking to shake down the old white driver. In an instant, a fire truck for paramedic service appeared, horns blaring. The fire fighters scrambled out and spoke briefly with the young men. The young men stood back as the fire fighters took command of the situation. As I slowly drove across the boulevard, I could see the old man rubbing his eyes and he seemed befuddled. Perhaps a vision problem ? Perhaps an escemic stroke ? Who knows.

To my shame. I mistook the actions of the young men in a negative light. Obviously, they were attempting to lend aid.

Dallas Stephens interjects:

Idle thought. Turn the clock back to the 1950's. What would you have thought was happening if you'd witnessed the exact same thing then? Fast forward to today: post-gangsta music, movies, videos & culture - after decades of media focus on the worst side of black-life in America? Seems to Bubba that things 'changed' the second the war on poverty was launched that wrecked family's in the inner city. Next came forced integration, white flight, the murder of MLK & Malcom X - and race riots for the first time. Soon, with few fathers left at home, schools gutted of achievers, declining tax bases, the entitlement mentality launched & gutted neighborhood economy's, schools were dumbed down as expectations were lowered., Then came the war on drugs that brought gangs, 'jobs' (aka crime) and an identity to lost inner city kids. Yeah, we've come a long way since John Carlos raised his fist on the winners podium at the Olympics. Some like Bubba would say it's no accident that perceptions have changed. Others would say unintended consequences to well-intentione
Richard replies:

I’ve found the words of Malcolm X ring truer and truer — as he called out the deliberate fostering of class conflict and the perfidy of the media.

Tim adds:

It is a sad but inevitable development that we jump to the worst stereotyping in such a situation. I remember when Jesse Jackson said he would be relieved when he heard footsteps behind him in a dark alley and turned around to find it was a white person coming up behind him; he himself was admitting that there is so much more danger from the black community. I remember the Kari sisters; that happened in my own neighborhood and my mother taught those girls at St. Jerome.

These girls and their cousin went out on the abandoned Chain of Rocks bridge over the Mississippi to look at a poem about racial tolerance they had graffitied on the bridge deck (everyone wrote graffiti on that bridge).

Some black teens came along, raped the girls, and tossed them to their deaths in the dark river below. The cousin survived being thrown off the bridge. Now, these girls assumed the best and got the worst.

But it is a cautionary tale; you have to assume the worst these days. And it's not just black kids, but anybody who you don't know but who may be able to overpower you physically. Those girls should never have been on that bridge. They should not have engaged in conversation with those men. They made multiple mistakes out of ignorance. That ignorance was a reflection of the modernist "tolerance" movement that promoted the idea that everyone is essentially good. They aren't. Those girls paid with their lives for a liberal concept..

Richard Cronin states:

I’ve found the words of Malcolm X ring truer and truer — as he called out the deliberate fostering of class conflict and the perfidy of the media.

Dallas Stephens adds:

I'd even go so far to say that Luis Farrakhan is more right than wrong. Both he and Malcom preached individual responsibility while naming names for the one's who caused the debacle. Malcom blamed white liberals. Farrakhan blames Jews and Whitey, and when seen from 'his' perspective, it's hard to argue with him. On the other side of the coin are those like Sharpton & Jackson who turned race and racism into big bucks for themselves by preaching more entitlement. Can't blame them either since exploitation is one of the world's most lucrative industries.

Tim replies:

The black community just followed the line of least resistance. In the end it is white liberals who caused all this. They set the rules of the game. They destroyed black families. They promoted a culture of dependency. They rigged it so no matter what a black person did it would never let them escape the soft bigotry. Now the black community is trapped on a liberal plantation and there is no way off. It was a snare and it is a snare for the rest of us, as they are coming for us all in time. The blacks simply were the tool used to promote things. And they were vulnerable enough that they couldn't prevent it. How do you turn down "help" when offered? Who wouldn't accept the set-asides and fianancial assistance offered by the liberal Democrats? But there was a terrible price to be paid, and we now see it in it's full glory. But there are still a lot of great black folks out there, ones who know this is wrong. As Dallas Stephens says, the Farrakhans and Malcolm X's are right in many ways. They see the system was gamed to their ruin. Sadly, they generally don't promote what they need to promote, which is the old Booker T. Washington philosophy of self-reliance, hard work, and, well, just being superior. It was a tough prescription, but Washington's call was the right one. Unfortunately it fell on deaf ears as the NAACP promoted political power over economic success. Now most "black power" types are socialists who want to destroy the country. It should have been the opposite; they should have been capitalists who sought to build.

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