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Showing posts with label Race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Race. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Tale of Two Communities

“The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.” — Thomas Sowell

Last week Bill O’Reilly kicked up a firestorm with his talking points memo on the plight of African-Americans in the United States. He blamed much of the poverty and crime on that the Black community suffers on Blacks themselves along with the race hustlers and politicians who have made a profitable industry out of ignoring the real problems in the African-American community.

O’Reilly’s main talking points were the high rate of African-American girls have babies out of wedlock (73%), the high rate of Black on Black crime, the countless fatherless homes, the narcotics trade, and the failed social welfare programs that have created a federal plantation.

In preparing to write this blog I did some research on Black on Black crime and I discovered some astonishing statistics. You constantly hear about the racism of lynching.

Violence in the United States against Black Americans, especially in the South, rose in the aftermath of the Civil War, after slavery had been abolished and recently freed black men were given the right to vote. Violence rose even more at the end of the 19th century, after southern white Democrats regained their political power in the South in the 1870s. States passed new constitutions or legislation which effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites, established segregation of public facilities by race, and separated blacks from common public life and facilities. Nearly 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, mostly from 1882 to 1920. The whites who were lynched were those who had helped blacks, married blacks, Catholics, and Jews..

Black-on-black crime is a sensitive subject in this increasingly polarized nation. While covered in academia and occasionally addressed by talking heads on television, some believe it rarely, if ever, receives the type and depth of attention it deserves. Instead, critics argue that this national tragedy is usually swept under the rug by powerful interest groups and individuals more concerned with elevating their own racially-driven agendas than addressing the real issues at hand. The Trayvon Martin case is only the most recent example of this grim hypocrisy.

Indeed, statistics support a very different narrative than the one usually offered by “race hustlers,” as Pastor C.L. Bryant calls them, who routinely portray an America where members of the black community are selectively targeted and brutalized by white racists.

A 2007 special report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, reveals that approximately 8,000 — and, in certain years, as many as 9,000 African Americans are murdered annually in the United States. This chilling figure is accompanied by another equally sobering fact, that 93% of these murders are in fact perpetrated by other blacks. The analysis, supported by FBI records, finds that in 2005 alone, for example, African Americans accounted for 49% of all homicide victims in the US — again, almost exclusively at the hands of other African Americans. Jehmu Green, a liberal Black commentator often seen on MSNBC and Fox News has stated that 280,000 blacks have been killed by other blacks since the advent of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

Black-on-Black-Crime-Statistics--620x530

To put these number in perspective, recall that over 6,400 U.S. service men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined over the course of a decade-long war fought in those nations. During the Vietnam War, which lasted nearly 13 years, some 58,000 Americans were killed — nearly 13 percent of whom were African American.

Extrapolating black-on-black crime data reveals that, by comparison, approximately 100,000 African Americans have been killed on our own streets at the hands of other African Americans in roughly the same stretches of time. It is difficult to find anyone who would white-wash these mind-numbing statistics.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal:

“Then there is the matter of who is dying. Although the U.S. murder rate has been dropping for years, an analysis of homicide data by The Wall Street Journal found that the number of black male victims increased more than 10%, to 5,942 in 2010 from 5,307 in 2000.

Overall, more than half the nation's homicide victims are African-American, though blacks make up only 13% of the population. Of those black murder victims, 85% were men, mostly young men.

Despite the declining U.S. murder rate, killings remain stubbornly high in poor pockets of cities large and small. In some cases, the rate is rising sharply. That increase is draining resources from police, prosecutors, social workers and hospitals.”

This begs the questions: where is the outrage from prominent members ofP1-BH636_murder_NS_20120817182109 the African-American community? Where are the words of condemnation and sorrow from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, or Rev. Al Sharpton, over the fact that members of their own communities are summarily executing each other? Critics believe that acknowledging the unfortunate, irrefutable statistical truth negates the left’s narrative about a black community selectively exploited and targeted by white racists. Some might also argue that fanning the flames of racial discontent, especially in an election year, serves a useful and powerful campaign purpose.

Thus far, hundreds of thousands of African Americans have been slaughtered at the hands of each other since the dawn of the Civil Rights movement. Is this the realization of Dr. King’s Community of Man?

The vast majority of the above statistics stem from the urban centers in cities like Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Miami, and Newark. But there is another Black community. It’s the community of Blacks who have left these urban cities for the safety of the suburbs. This is one of the major reasons for the failure of Detroit. These Blacks have nuclear families with a father in he house. They work hard and buy homes. They are not on the dole. Their children are supervised and go to good schools where their graduation rates are the same as whites and Asians. Some of these families have mom’s working so they can send their kids to private and parochial college preparatory schools. They don’t do drugs and they go on to becomes doctors, lawyers, engineers, and entrepreneurs. They are involved in their communities and pay little if no attention to the race hustles. They even vote Republican. I know this because I have a neighbor who fits this model.

The to counter the race hustlers there are the commentators like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, David Webb, Deneen Borelli, Dr. Ben Carson, Star Parker, and the entire staff of Project 21. These are the voices of reason within the Black community that are drowned out by the voices of race hustlers that get some much coverage in the mainstream media. These are the voices urging Blacks to stop the out of wedlock births, get off he drugs, stay in school, learn to speak proper English, and learn how to work. They are the voices who identify the issues existing within the social welfare states of the federal plantation. They are also the voices most criticized by the race hustlers and Congressional Black Caucus. You see they are preaching a doctrine of personal responsibility, family cohesiveness, and self-education. They tell Blacks in the urban center not to rely on the failed government schools dominated by the self-interests of the teachers unions to open their eyes and ears to other sources of learning, i.e. read books.

It is these voices in the Black community we must listen to. They are the voice with solutions, even those solutions may seem harsh to many in the urban centers used to the comfort of the federal plantation. They are the voices the race exploiters in the entertainment drown out with their music, TV shows and films while they make millions from their exploitation. When I look at people like Allen West, Ben Carson, Deneen Borelli, and Thomas Sowell, I stand in awe at their poise, linguistic skills, and thoughtful deliberation.

In reality, the Trayvon Martin case gave Obama another way to avoid dealing with issues of national and international importance. Cries of racism permit Obama to deftly avoid the penetrating questions that need to be asked about the ongoing scandals that plague this country, be it the IRS, the NSA, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the Federal Data Services Hub revelation, or the "impending train wreck" of ObamaCare.

There is no dealing with an individual who changes the rules of the game and makes them up as he goes along. When the American people understand this and liberate themselves from such race-baiting, we will be able to make some real and definitive steps to halt the ongoing assault on this country. It is an assault that hurts blacks and whites alike by a man and a party who care for neither group, except as a means to expand their grip on power.

So the next time you see a Black person walking down the street make sure you can identify the community he belongs to before to pass judgment.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

When is Being Black Being Black?

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” — Frederick Douglass

One of the most exciting young players in the National Football League this year is the quarterback for the Washington Redskins, Robert Griffin III — otherwise known as RGIII. Griffin, a graduate of Baylor University and winner of the prestigious Heisman Trophy, was the first player picked by the Redskins in the 2012 NFL draft. The Redskins mortgaged the house by trading three years’ worth of first round picks to the St. Louis Rams, a team that due to their dismal 2011 seasons had been awarded the second overall pick in the draft.

The first player picked in the draft was quarterback Andrew Luck, of Stanford, by the Indianapolis Colts at team with the worst 2011 record. Both college quarterbacks were highly rated collage players desired by many NFL teams.

Griffin was born on Okinawa, where his parents, Robert Jr. and Jacqueline, both U.S. Army sergeants, were stationed. The family later lived at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington, and then moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. They finally settled in Copperas Cove, Texas in 1997.

Griffin attended Copperas Cove High School, where he was a three-sport star in basketball, football, and track. He started at quarterback for two seasons. During his junior season, he passed for 2,001 yards and 25 touchdowns with two interceptions, while compiling 876 rushing yards for 8 touchdowns. He received first-team All-District 16-4A honors after the season. As a senior he recorded 1,285 rushing yards, posting 24 touchdowns, and passed for 1,356 yards for 16 touchdowns with seven interceptions. In his senior season Copperas Cove finished with a record of 13–2, but lost in the championship game of the 2007 Class 4A Division I state playoffs. Over the two seasons, he rushed for a total of 2,161 yards and 32 touchdowns while passing for 3,357 yards and 41 touchdowns with nine interceptions.

Rivals.com, a college football recruiting service, ranked Griffin the fourth-best dual-threat quarterback in the nation and the 42nd-best player in Texas in the high school prospect class of 2008. During the college recruiting period Griffin was pursued by Stanford, Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska, Houston, Tulsa, Illinois, Washington State, and Oregon. Griffin initially committed to play for Houston under head coach Art Briles. When Briles left Houston to take the head coaching position at Baylor, Griffin switched his commitment and eventually signed a letter of intent to play for Baylor, in part because the university also had a top track and field program.

Griffin graduated from high school a semester early, after serving as class250px-Rg3_redskins president and ranking seventh in his class. He began attending Baylor, A Baptist, Christian University, during the spring 2008 semester when he was 17 years old. As a member of Baylor's track and field team, Griffin finished in first place in the 400-meter hurdles at both the Big 12 Conference Championship and the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship meets; he also broke the NCAA Midwest Regional 400-meter hurdles record. He placed third in the NCAA meet and also participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials, in which he advanced to the semifinals. Griffin graduated in three years with a degree in political science and a 3.67 GPA, while appearing on the Dean's List twice. During his final year of college sports eligibility, he was studying for a Master's degree in communication.

Coming into the 2011 season, the Baylor Bears were not expected to do well, being picked 6th in the Big 12 preseason poll. The Bears opened the season against 15th-ranked TCU. The Bears took a 47-23 lead into the 4th quarter, and were able to fight off a comeback after the Horned Frogs gained the lead 48-47 briefly, only for Baylor to kick the game winning field goal and win 50-48. They pulled off the upset in large part due to Griffin's performance; he passed for 359 yards, with 5 touchdowns and a 77.8% completion percentage. On the game-winning drive, Griffin also caught a key pass. Following the win, Baylor entered the AP Poll rankings for only the third time in the previous 15 seasons, at 20th, and Griffin was considered by many to be a Heisman Trophy candidate. After a bye week Baylor shut out Stephen F. Austin State University 48-0, and Griffin went 20 of 22 (90.9%) for 247 yards and 3 touchdowns and ran for 78 yards. In week 4, Griffin ushered Baylor to their third win, beating Rice University 56-31; Griffin completed 29 of 33 passes (87.9%) for 338 yards with 51 yards rushing and a touchdown. In week five against Kansas State, Griffin almost brought the Bears to their fourth win, going 23 out of 31 (74.2%) for 346 yards and five touchdowns with only one interception, but they lost 36-35 to the Wildcats. In week six against Iowa State, Griffin took Baylor to Iowa for their fourth win, completing 22 out of 30 (73.3%) for 212 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. He won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first player from Baylor to win it. Griffin also led Baylor to a 10-3 record, including a 67-56 win over the Washington Huskies in the Alamo Bowl. With a combined 123 points, it stands as the highest-scoring regulation bowl game in NCAA history. Due to the Alamo Bowl, Griffin became the first player since Tim Tebow in 2007 to win the Heisman and not appear in the National Championship.

Griffin was widely projected to be the No. 2 pick of the draft, but the St. Louis Rams — the team originally holding the pick — had already selected Sam Bradford to be their long-term starting quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. Wanting to stick with Bradford, the Rams decided to deal the pick prior to the draft, with the Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins perceived as the most interested bidders. After a brief bidding process, the Redskins acquired the pick by giving the Rams four high-value draft picks over three years: their No. 6 overall pick in 2012, their second-round pick in 2012, and their first-round picks in 2013 and 2014.

Griffin III's father, Robert Griffin, Jr., a talented basketball player at Kennedy High School, enlisted in the Army before he graduated. While stationed in Fort Carson, Colorado, he met and later married Jackie Griffin (née Ross). The couple were deployed to Okinawa, Fort Lewis and Fort Hood, nearby which they eventually settled after retiring from the military.

At Baylor, Griffin III met his fiancée Rebecca Liddicoat, a native of Boulder, Colorado.

If you haven’t noticed by now RGIII is black.

RGII is the latest black under attack by the Blackness Gestapo. The Blackness Gestapo are racists, black and white, who troll the airways keeping blacks in check, faithful to their blackness. They believe that to be authentically black, one must behave and think in certain ways. Blackness Gestapo-authorized black behavior includes having a chip on your shoulder against whites, maintaining an eternal victim and entitlement mindset, never achieving success without Democratic Party programs, and never, ever voting Republican. Blacks must call themselves African-Americans and display an urban edge via their speech, attire, and attitude.

Blackness Gestapo enforcer and ESPN analyst Rob Parker accused RGIII of not being black enough. Griffin comes from a great military family. His fiancée is white. He is extremely articulate. He wants to be judged by his performance on the football field without regard for his skin color. Wow — what a radical concept in our new "everything is about race" Obama America. Doesn't RGIII sound like he embraces the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — that people be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin? (Don’t look for the video of Parker’s remarks on YouTube as it has been pulled for violation of YouTube’s policies)

But worst of all, Parker stated he has a white girlfriend and rumor has it that Griffin might be a Republican.

It should be noted that Rush Limbaugh was fired from his 2003 football analysis gig on ESPN his comments on Eagles quarterback Donovan McNab for saying after the Eagles 23-13 win over the Buffalo Bills:

“Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go," Limbaugh said. "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

The idiotic self-imposed suppression of black liberation and growth by the Blackness Gestapo goes way back.

In the '70s, I remember watching an episode of the sitcom Good Times. A black politician was criticized by the black community for coming across too white. To prove his blackness and win black voters, the politician had to show that he could speak an urban language called The Dozens. Clearly, the absurd, restrictive message of the episode was that regardless of one's education, racial loyalty requires that blacks maintain remnants of the hood.

Remember the '90s comedy TV show In Living Color? A standard joke of the program was the black guy who did not sound or behave like he came from the ghetto. The message was that blacks who speak English correctly and prefer sushi over fried chicken are traitors trying to be white.

Witness the same brain-dead behavior from blacks in Florida when brilliant, articulate black Republican Jennifer Carroll ran for Congress against the Democrat incumbent do-nothing-for-her-constituents Corrine Brown. Brown's district was mostly black and ghetto. Brown had been in office forever, without much positive change in her district. Carroll was smart and loaded with fresh new ideas. Brown won re-election, hands down. Word on the street was that Carroll sounded too white. Give me a break! Racist idiots! This behavior also applies to contemporaries like Allan West and Mia Love. It no doubt will be carried over to Tim Scott the newly appointed U.S. Senator (by Nikki Haley the governor of South Carolina) to fill .the seat of retiring Senator Jim DeMint.

As Lloyd Marcus, a Black Tea Party conservative wrote in American Thinker

“Blackness Gestapo Generals Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton had a "'tude" against Obama for running for president without hood "creds" such as theirs.  Obama had to prove his blackness by spending 20 years in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racist church. The mainstream media partnered with the Democrats in hiding Rev. Wright's racist rants from the public to protect their first black serious socialistic/progressive contender for the Oval Office.

If I sound a bit frank in my language, it is because I am tired of Blackness Gestapo thugs threatening and stifling the growth of blacks. How dare they dictate the behavior of myself and other blacks?

Forty years ago, I met a black fencing master -- as in sword-fighting. I was elated. I carted the brother to recreation centers across Baltimore. I wanted black kids to see black excellence beyond basketball, football, baseball, and entertainment. I wanted them to see that blacks need not be limited in their abilities, hopes, and dreams.

So Blackness Gestapo thug Rob Parker, get a life and mind your own business. RGIII is free to be whomever and whatever he wishes without your and your homeys' approval. Wimp conservatives/Republicans say we must pander to your ilk to win the urban vote. That "ain't happenin'" as far as I am concerned. I will never sacrifice principles and values that I know are right and best for all people to the false god of votes. Racist thugs like you must and will be defeated.”

As it stands today RGIII is a perfect role model for all youth — not just Black kids. He is talented and has used that talent the God gave him and his parents nurtured to pursue his dream and so far have done very well. Is leadership abilities were quickly recognized by the Redskin’s player that they named him team captain — this is unheard of for a rookie! He is an exciting football player to watch and I will root for him — except when the Redskins play my beloved Rams. If he continues on his current career path and can avoid career ending injuries he will no doubt end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Also, if he lives up to his principles and does well he will no doubt eventually become a national leader in some capacity — perhaps politics.

Monday, April 2, 2012

A Nation Divided

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858.

Abraham Lincoln delivered this speech, from which the above quote was taken, upon his nomination as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, where he would square off against incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas. Drawing the leading metaphor from a passage in the Gospel of Matthew, Lincoln held that pro-slavery forces—Douglas, Franklin Pierce (president when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was adopted), Roger Taney, and James Buchanan (president when Dred Scott was decided)—were working in concert to effect a national policy legalizing slavery in all states and territories. Papers throughout the North reprinted the text of the speech, propelling Lincoln to new prominence. Two years after this speech Lincoln was elected president of the United States and the American Civil War began, a war that led to the abolition of slavery and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Today this nation is divided over issues of race and class. Even though we have a black president class and race relations in the United States have deteriorated to a point that is reminiscent of the days of the civil rights marches. After spending trillions of dollars to fight poverty in the past 50 years the poverty rates in the inner cities has not improved and race relations have worsened. There numerous reasons for this malady but four of the most obvious are; Lack of adequate education in the inner cities, single parent families, a left-wing media and race baiting politicians who use race to garner the votes to keep them in power. This latter is called by many the “New Planation.”

Mark Alexander writes in the Patriot Post:

“According to the Chicago Sun-Times, in just 48 hours, 10 people were murdered and at least 40 others were seriously injured. Most of the victims were 15-30 years of age and the assailants were black or Latino. One victim was six-year-old Aliyah Shell, who was shot to death while playing on the front porch of her home in the Little Village neighborhood.

"The violence this weekend underscores that Chicago has a unique gang problem," claimed Obama's former chief of staff and current Windy City Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

You may recall that a year ago, the Chicago Sun-Times won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting on violence in Chicago, most notably for a similar story about a weekend of mayhem in 2008 when seven people were killed and 33 wounded. (There were 60 percent more murders in Chicago that year -- 509 -- than combat deaths in Iraq, but neither Cindy Sheehan nor Code Pink were anywhere to be found.)

Of that award, Sun-Times Publisher John Barron proudly exclaimed, "It's not every day that I hear multiple squeals of joy. That's what happened when we found out. What a great sound. There are so many smiling faces around here now." The Pulitzer citation was for "documentation of violence in Chicago neighborhoods ... as a widespread code of silence impedes solutions." (Nothing like reporting on deadly violence to evoke "multiple squeals of joy.")

Of course, Obama and black leaders across the nation haven't said a single word about all of the violence in Chicago, opting instead to maintain the "code of silence which impedes solutions."

However, Barack and his cadres of race-hustling "useful idiots" are luring black voters with fresh Florida race bait, specifically using the death of Trayvon Martin, age 17, as political fodder to keep their most loyal constituency confined to the Democrat Party Plantation. Indeed, the "black vote" is key to the Left's divide-and-conquer strategy given that more than 90 percent of black voters support Democrats. Indeed, were it not for this monolithic support, the Democrat Party would be hard-pressed to win a single statewide election -- much less a presidential election.”

Alexander continues:

“To that end, my colleague Walter E. Williams, in an essay entitled "Profiling," notes, "The former Charleston, S.C., black chief of police, Reuben Greenberg, said the problem facing black America is not racial profiling. He said, 'The greatest problem in the black community is the tolerance for high levels of criminality.' Former Los Angeles black police Chief Bernard Parks, defending racial profiling, said: 'It's not the fault of the police when they stop minority males or put them in jail. It's the fault of the minority males for committing the crime. In my mind, it is not a great revelation that if officers are looking for criminal activity, they're going to look at the kind of people who are listed on crime reports.' Are former police Chiefs Greenberg and Parks racist?"

On the institutionalization of crime, Williams notes further, "Crime is one of the results of the liberal agenda. Blacks are 13 percent of the population but are more than 50 percent of murder victims. About 95 percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer."

Regarding the Democrat Party plantation, Williams writes, "During the 1960s, academic liberals and hustling politicians told us that to deal with crime, we had to deal with its 'root causes,' poverty and discrimination. Thomas Sowell has pointed out that in 1960, the total number of murders in the United States was lower than in 1950, 1940 and 1930, even though our population had grown and two new states had been added. The liberal agenda, coupled with courts granting criminals new rights, later caused the murder rate to double, and the rates of other violent crimes also began to skyrocket. Crime imposes a hefty tax on law-abiding residents of black neighborhoods. Residents bear costs of having to shop outside of their neighborhoods; criminals have driven many businesses out. Children can't play safely in front of their homes. Fearing robberies, taxi drivers, including black drivers, often refuse to accept telephone calls for home pickups and frequently pass black customers by on the street. Neighborhood property values are lower as a result of crime. Plus, there's the insult associated with not being able to receive pizza or other deliveries on the same terms as people in other neighborhoods."

Indeed, in "Race and Rhetoric," Sowell also notes, "The poverty rate among blacks was nearly cut in half in the 20 years prior to the 1960s, a record unmatched since then, despite the expansion of welfare state policies in the 1960s. Not only was unemployment among blacks in general lower before the liberal welfare state policies expanded in the 1960s, rates of imprisonment of blacks were also lower then, and most black children were raised in two-parent families. At one time, a higher percentage of blacks than whites were married and working. None of these facts fits liberal social dogmas.

Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute sheds more light on the statistical color of crime: "Black males between the ages of 14 and 24 were seven times more likely to die of homicide in 2007 than white and Hispanic males of the same age group combined. But the danger they face comes overwhelmingly from other black males, whose homicide offending rate in the 14 to 24 age category was nearly ten times higher than that of young white and Hispanic males combined. Most homicides are intraracial, but the chance of a black being killed by a white or Hispanic is much lower than the chance that a white or Hispanic will be killed by a black."

Moreover, because the FBI categorizes Hispanics as "white," MacDonald notes, "If Hispanics were removed from the category of 'white' killers of blacks, the percentage of blacks killed by Anglo whites would plummet, since a significant percentage of what the FBI calls 'white'-on-black killings represent gang warfare between Hispanic and black gangs."

The real crime, according to former Garland, Texas, NAACP leader C.L. Bryant, is "exploiting" the Trayvon Martin tragedy to "racially divide this country. His family should be outraged at the fact that they're using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions."

(For a more candid treatise on "black America," read Bill Cosby's remarks on the NAACP's Gala Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.)

What black men and women -- in fact men and women of any race and ethnic background -- should be protesting is the race-bait rhetoric of Obama and his poverty pimps, who promote the Democratic doctrines that perpetuate institutionalization of poverty and its resulting violent subcultures. As a friend said to me recently, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man a welfare check, free food, transportation and housing, and he will vote Democrat for a lifetime."

I think Alexander explains the issue of the Democrat plantation very well.

Just as Rahm Emmanuel didn't want to let a good crisis go to waste, the national press doesn't want to let a good victim go to waste.

The death of Trayvon Martin is a terrible thing, but the usual suspects are hijacking his death to create a morality play. Whenever this happens, and it happens with some frequency in American life, truth is corrupted.

About 153 young black men are killed every week in America — 94 percent of them at the hands of other young black males. Only one of those who were murdered on Feb. 26 has dominated national news coverage — because his killer was not black.

There is an etiquette to discussing ethnicity that goes straight out the window if the press decides to create a racial villain. Normally, if a person is of mixed ancestry, as George Zimmerman is, he gets the benefit of the doubt on being a minority. A person with mixed ancestry, such as Cameron Diaz or Bill Richardson, would never be called "half white." But Zimmerman became, in the phrase adopted by The New York Times, a "white Hispanic."

Among the disgusting features of this national drama is the furious search for Zimmerman's exact racial/ethnic pedigree. He's a full Hispanic, claims one website. He's half white but considers himself a Hispanic, says his father. Do they hear themselves? Could apartheid South Africa or the racial policies of the Third Reich have been more exacting in searching for the drops of racial blood?

The left has ginned up the outrage machine, as if America were experiencing an epidemic of white on black killings and this was the last straw. This is fiction. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 3.2 percent of black victims were murdered by whites in 2005, the last year for which data are available. The black on white rate was higher — 8.8 percent — but still, the data show that murder remains very much an intraracial phenomenon.

It isn't at all clear what happened on Feb. 26. It certainly appears that Zimmerman used excessive violence. Zimmerman's story of being in a fight (apparently corroborated by an eyewitness) is not supported by the videotape that shows him unharmed at the police station.

The facts remain far from clear.

The dead youth, who is now universally imagined as his 13- or 14-year-old self because of the old picture that has circulated, may or may not have been up to something more than buying Skittles that night (not that that would justify the shooting). We don't know.

But we do know the way narratives are created and manipulated to make political points. The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a tragedy by any reckoning, was perverted into a "hate crime" by a media keen to create a gay victimization story and by a defense attorney looking for an argument about why his client "snapped." (He claimed that Shepard made a pass and his client became violent in response.) The fictional version of the tale — that Shepard was singled out, tortured and murdered because he was gay — lives on in books, television dramas, and one of the most frequently performed plays in the repertoire, "The Laramie Project." It was also the partial inspiration for the federal hate crimes act, signed into law by President Obama in 2009.

The truth is more complicated. As the ABC show "20/20" reported, the two men who killed Shepard were coming off a weeklong methamphetamine binge. One was raised by an unmarried teenaged alcoholic. The other was the product of divorce and then lost his mother at a young age. Both were heavy drug and alcohol abusers. There is evidence that Shepard himself may have accepted a ride with them because he was into drugs as well. After leaving Shepard bludgeoned and tied to a fence, the killers intended to rob his apartment but got into another brawl with two other criminals that night, one of whom suffered a fractured skull.

It was all ugly — but not quite in the way the we've been told.

So it was with the Duke Lacrosse case. Before anyone really knew what the facts were, the left, including a large segment of the Duke faculty to their eternal shame, peddled a version about spoiled, racist, white college kids abusing and raping a black dancer. We now know how that turned out.

In one recent Chicago weekend, 49 people were shot, 10 fatally, including a 6-year-old black girl. Did President Obama issue a statement? Black-on-black crime, like black-on-white crime, does not fit the liberal media's narrative of white racism they want to promote.

How selective is the outrage about interracial crime — when the bad guy is black?

Ken Tillery, in 2002 walked down a Jasper, Texas road. Three men offered him a ride. But the men kidnapped Tillery, driving him to a remote location. John Perazzo of FrontPageMagazine.com describes what happened: "When the terrified Tillery jumped out of the vehicle and tried to flee, the kidnappers caught up with him, beat him and finally ran over him — dragging him to his death beneath their car's undercarriage."

Same town, a few years after the James Byrd murder, a black-white murder in the same fashion — by dragging a man to his death — but no story! Why? Well, Tillery was white, and the three suspects were all black. The irony alone would, one would think, guarantee lots of coverage. But how much coverage did the case get? An online search of 557 newspapers found that 22 covered the story.

On April 16, 2011 two young British tourists were shot dead when the mistakenly wandered into a notorious black ghetto in near Sarasota Florida. According to The Telegraph the British tourists were shot dead after begging for their lives before being gunned down:

“James Cooper and James Kouzaris pleaded with their alleged killer after getting lost late at night in a crime plagued housing estate.

They were allegedly robbed at gunpoint in April by 16 year old Shawn Tyson.

But according to an eye witness Tyson was unhappy the pair did not have much money and told them: "Since you ain't got no money then I got something for your ass" before opening fire.

Cooper, 25, and Kouzaris, 24, died in a hail of bullets and were later found in the notorious Newtown area of Sarasota in Florida.

The pair were shot dead after wandering drunk into the housing estate where Tyson and a friends were roaming around looking for someone to rob.”

This story drew little attention and the media ignored the race of the killer.RTV_Trial_220312_S_2175228b When President Obama made his infamous “if I had a son he would look like Trayvon” statement the parents of Cooper and Kouzaris criticized President Barack Obama for his lack of compassion over their sons' deaths. According to a report in The Telegraph:

“His failure to respond to three letters sent to the White House was because there was no "political value" and not worthy of a few minutes of his time.

They spoke out as teenager Shawn Tyson began a life sentence after being found guilty of the murder of James Cooper and James Kouzaris last April.

The 17 year old, who shot the men as they begged for their lives, will die in prison.

His conviction of first degree murder carries an mandatory life sentence without the chance of parole.

The powerfully built teen even looked bored as emotional DVD presentations about the dead men prepared by their grieving parents were shown in court.

Tyson, who has the word 'Savage' tattooed across his chest didn't show a flicker of emotion, slumping in his seat as he was forced to watch a montage of photos showing the victims from early childhood to young men.

Two close friends of the dead men who had attended the eight day trial in Sarasota, Florida. had also delivered highly emotional impact statements to the court prior to the sentencing.

Paul Davies and Joe Hallett spoke of the "living hell" they and others who knew the men had suffered since the murders.

During the eight day trial they had been shown graphic crime scene and autopsy photos shown in court.

Later speaking after Tyson was jailed Davies and Hallett lashed out at Mr. Obama saying the deaths of their friends was "not worthy of ten minutes of his time."

Davies said:" We would like to publicly express our dissatisfaction at the lack of any public or private message of support or condolence from any American governing body or indeed, President Obama himself.

"Mr. Kouzaris has written to President Obama on three separate occasions and is yet to even receive the courtesy of a reply.

"It would perhaps appear that Mr. Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time."

Where preferred victim narratives are concerned, truth is the first casualty of American journalism.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

What if Trayvon Had Been White, and the Shooter Black?

“If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon.” — Barack Obama March 23, 2012

In response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin near Orlando Florida by a Hispanic neighborhood watchman last week President Barack Obama said on the Whitehouse lawn last Friday that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon.

Urging Americans to "do some soul searching," President Barack Obama injected himself into the emotional debate over the fatal shooting of a teenager in Florida, turning the racially charged case into a personal matter for the nation's first black president.

Obama said the parents of Martin, who was shot on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, have a right to expect "that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened."

Martin was shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he was acting in self-defense. Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is Hispanic. The shooting has stoked debate over race as well as other issues. Obama did not mention Zimmerman in his comments.

Before continuing I would like to present a few known facts about this case not generally reported in the mainstream media. According to an article published in the Charleston Conservative Examiner by Kyle Rogers on March 21st Zimmerman was on the ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin:

“Last weekend in the city of Chicago alone, gangbangers slaughtered ten people and wounded another forty. The youngest fatality is only six years old. The youngest person wounded is only one-year-old. Many of the victim were pedestrians sprayed with bullets in drive by shootings. The national news has said nothing about this.”

Before continuing with Kyle Rogers’ report I must divert for a moment to mention the little reported bloodbath in Chicago.

Chicago has one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation; it is almost impossible for anyone to legally own a gun. So as a result of this prohibition of gun ownership, this unilateral disarmament Chicago must be as peaceful, as calm, as safe as well a kindergarten in paradise.

Uhm.no! While law abiding citizens don't own guns and struggle to overturn laws banning them, those who laugh at such niceties as following the law, purchasing guns through authorized dealers and even stopping at stop signs, manage to obtain guns. And they use them in a brutal war being played out in some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods, including the one so ably organized by our present president and the one about a mile from his ill-gotten home. The shootings are done mainly by Hispanic and black gang members, mowing down the innocent, the passersby, the children in addition to the occasional opposition gangbanger.

Over St. Patrick’s Day weekend as Chicagoans enjoyed three record breaking sunny, 75 degree and higher seemingly summer days in this winterless winter, some Chicagoans set a shameless record of their own — 10 dead, 49 others wounded in 46 shootings, mainly in the city's high crime districts.

“At least 10 people were killed, including a 6-year-old girl, in shootings over the weekend in Chicago.

The slain were among at least 49 people wounded in shootings from 5 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday, according to information compiled by the Chicago Tribune.”

Not confined to the week end, the shootings continued Monday morning. And for diversity in murder, a man died after being punched. No word yet if Chicago lawmakers will outlaw fists; punching people without their permission is already illegal.

So how is that gun control brainwashing working out Eric Holder?

“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that's not cool, that it's not acceptable, it's not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes."

Holder added that he had asked advertising agencies in the nation's capital to assist by making anti-gun ads rather than commercials "that make me buy things that I don't really need." He had also approached local newspapers and television stations, he said, asking them to devote prime space and time, respectively, to his anti-gun campaign.

Local political leaders and celebrities, Holder said, including Mayor Marion Barry and Jesse Jackson, had been asked to help. In addition, he reported, he had asked the local school board to make the anti-gun message a part of "every day, every school, and every level."

Many of Chicago's shootings take place at or near Rev Jesse Jackson's neighborhood. (When he's there and not attending the high profile protest of the day.) And didn't this Eric Holder grow up to supply guns to thugs and drug dealers in Fast and Furious as part of his job as Attorney General of the United States?

Kyle Rogers continued:

“So why does one shooting in Florida warrant weeks of national news? Why has there been thousands of articles a day, for the last four days, about one single shooting?

Almost all of the news items about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin contains a combination of false statements, opinions presented as facts, transparent distortions, and a complete absence of some of the most relevant details. Almost all news items are written solely from the point of view of the grieving family. The media also fills their articles with outdated baby-faced pictures of Trayvon. Very few include that he was a towering 6'2” football player. Is the media really reporting the news, or is this classic agitation/propaganda to advance a political agenda.

Literally thousands of articles contain at least one false statement in the first couple of lines. They usually read "George Zimmerman, a white man," or "shoot by a white man." Zimmerman is described by family as a multiracial Hispanic. His appearance is clearly that of a Latino/Mestizo individual. However, the media wants him to be white because that better fits the political narrative they are trying to artificially create. Many news articles have also claimed the neighborhood is "mostly white." This is also a lie. The neighborhood is only 49% white. It is over half non-white.

All the way back on February 27th, the local Orlando Fox station interviewed the witness who dialed 911. Almost none of the thousands of articles since have mentioned any of the details described by the witness. Some, however, have attributed false statements to this witness. On March 16th, the Sanford police department released new details to the Orlando Sentinel. Once again, these details have been ignored or changed by the media.

  1. The witness reports that George Zimmerman was on the ground and Trayvon is on top of him punching him.
  2. The witness says that George Zimmerman was screaming and yelling for help.
  3. Police arrive and find Zimmerman bleeding on his face and the back of his head. He also has had grass stains on his back. All this confirms the story told by Zimmerman and the witness.
  4. Police play the 911 tape for Trayvon Martin's father, who tells police that the voice screaming is not the voice of his son.

The neighborhood this took place in has seen a lot of crime. Would you be surprised to learn that there were eight burglaries, nine thefts, and a shooting just in the past year? In fact, the local homeowners' association reports that George Zimmerman actually caught one thief and aided in the apprehension of other criminals. The Miami Herald wrote about this on March 17th. None of the thousands of articles and cable news segments that came after, thought this was important.

In fact the Miami Herald goes on to interview neighbor, Ibrahim Rashada, who is black. Rashada confirms that there has been a lot of crime in the neighborhood and indicates to the reporter that the perpetrators are usually black.

The media also characterizes Trayvon as a "model student." In fact, he was under a five day suspension when the shooting took place. That is why he was staying at a house so far from his school on a school night. A lawyer for Trayvon's family has blocked access to his school records. However, you have to do something pretty bad to get suspended for five days.

Now that you know the suppressed facts of the case, you can for form a better more balanced opinion. Maybe you still think Zimmerman was wrong to pull the trigger. However, I think you will come to the conclusion that the "mainstream" clearly is pushing an agenda. Even when they have to grossly alter and adjust a story to fit that agenda.”

What would happen if a black man armed with a handgun confronted "suspicious persons" in his neighborhood? What would happen if the "suspicious persons" were unarmed white teens, one of them was shot dead, and the shooter claimed self-defense?

This is not an exercise in mere speculation. We know what would happen in such a case. There would be no white mobs in the street chanting "No justice, no peace!" There would be no whites holding a "million hoodie march" in New York City. There would be no white equivalent of Al Sharpton, the professional race-baiter behind the 1987 Tawana Brawley hoax, leading marches in the streets of the shooter's hometown. There would be no Federal civil rights investigation by the Justice Department. There would be no comments from a president who seems congenitally unable to keep his mouth shut on matters involving left-wing political correctness. And there would be no national media attention from biased, left-wing "reporters."

We know this because in fact, such an event occurred in 2009 in Greece, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. Roderick Scott, a black man, shot and killed an unarmed white teen, Christopher Cervini, whom he believed was burglarizing a neighbor's car, with a licensed .40 cal. handgun.

There are many similarities between the Scott-Cervini case and the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case in Florida. In both cases, there had been a spate of criminal activity in the neighborhood. In both cases, the shooters called 911 to report suspicious activity, yet chose to confront the unarmed suspects outside their residence and off their own property prior to the arrival of the police. In both cases, the shooters claimed that they felt threatened, and fired in self-defense. In both cases, local law enforcement applied relevant state law.

Unlike Florida, New York does not have a "stand your ground" law. New York law allows a person to use deadly force to defend his residence from home invasion only as a last resort. It does not allow the use of deadly force to prevent a property crime, and requires retreat if possible. Thus, while Zimmerman was not arrested under Florida law, Scott was tried for manslaughter and acquitted.

New York law does allow a person to use deadly force anywhere, including off his own property, if he feels that his life is in imminent danger and retreat is not possible. Despite the fact that he left his own property, confronted, and shot dead an unarmed white person thought to be committing a petty property crime, Scott was acquitted by a majority-white jury after claiming that the Cervini charged at him, putting him in imminent fear of his life.

Despite the racial difference between the shooter and the decedent, there were no allegations of racial bias. Scott was not charged with a hate crime. There was no Federal civil rights investigation. There were no white protests. The case was settled for what it was: a tragedy caused by a series of poor decisions on behalf of the shooter, and a split-second decision that will forever be second-guessed.

In all probability, the actions of Zimmerman in Florida were also based on a series of poor decisions: the decision to follow a suspect after a police dispatcher told him not to, the decision to confront a suspect with a firearm off his own property, and a split-second decision to shoot an unarmed person when Zimmerman felt his life was in imminent danger, resulting in tragedy. But a tragedy is not necessarily a Federal civil rights case — unless the mobs in the streets and their allies in the media and government want to make it one.

The truth of the matter is that "civil rights" cases are often little more than reverse lynch mobs. In the Old South of the past, white mobs would drag black suspects out of jail and lynch them in the streets if they felt the wheels of justice were turning too slowly. Today, black mobs, often led by the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and other race pimps lead street protests or riots, and the Federal government comes after white suspects with the "rope" of "civil rights" charges. And just like the old Southern sheriffs with ties to the Klan who turned a blind eye to the illegal actions of whites, the Department of Justice often refuses to act on "civil rights" violations when the perpetrators are black and the victims are white. In the eyes of the Federal government and the political Left, all whites are forever suspected of being gap-toothed Klansmen with shotguns and nooses in their pickup trucks, and all blacks are perpetually innocent, doe-eyed victims of white oppression.

This dynamic was made perfectly clear twenty years ago by the Los Angeles riots. Rodney King, a convicted felon, allegedly intoxicated, led police on a high-speed car chase and resisted arrest when he was finally cornered. Most people agree that the cops gave Rodney a few more licks than department procedures called for. But given King's background and the extenuating circumstances, the cops were acquitted of assault charges under state law. The black population of L.A. erupted in riots that killed 53 people, ignited thousands of arsons, and saw widespread looting. Korean merchants were racially targeted for arson, and resorted to defending their property with arms. Reginald Denny, a hapless white truck driver who inadvertently drove into the riots, was pulled from his vehicle by black rioters who smashed his skull in 91 places with a brick (inflicting far worse injuries than the cops had inflicted on King) and danced a jig over his prone body.

Long before Eric Holder became Attorney General and refused to prosecute black voter intimidation, and referred to blacks as "my people," the Department of Justice caved in to the pressure of the rioters by charging and convicting the L.A. cops with "civil rights" violations and sending them to Federal prison. But no such Federal charges were levied against the blacks who targeted the Koreans and attacked Reginald Denny.

Two years later, O.J. Simpson, a black defendant with a history of domestic violence, was accused of slashing the throats of two white people. But no "civil rights" or "hate crimes" charges were filed against him. No white protests erupted against Simpson or against the black community. Simpson, a black millionaire who had a career in sports, money, and fame that most white people can only dream about, was portrayed as a "victim" of the "racist" police. Blacks from coast to coast whooped and danced with joy when he was acquitted of double murder.

Certainly it's true that in the past, blacks have been victims of whites. But today the reality is quite different from what the street mobs, the government, the media and the P.C. crowd would have us believe. Far from being victims of white oppression, blacks today are disproportionately perpetrators of violent crimes against whites and against other blacks. According to data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, in 2009, "whites" — a category that includes Hispanics — were known to be responsible for 5,286 murders. Blacks, a mere 13% of the population, were known to be responsible for 5,980 murders. In 2005, the New Century Foundation's "Color of Crime" report found that "Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Forty-five percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are black" (emphasis mine). Also in 2005, the Department of Justice reported that one-third of rapes committed against white women (approximately 37,000) were perpetrated by blacks, while less than ten — statistically zero — rapes of black women were committed by whites.

Whatever happened in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case, one thing is perfectly clear: it's high time this country quit the racial dog-and-pony show, and judged each criminal case on its individual merits instead of allowing the race-baiting demagogues to leverage each incident for political advantage in the streets and in the media.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Liberal Plantations

“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.” — Thomas Sowell

Walter Williams, a conservative black professor of economics at George Mason University writes a blog at least once a week. He also contributes to many conservative publications such as National Review, Human Events, and American Spectator along with the Wall Street Journal. In a May 18, 2011 blog he wrote something that sounds a great deal like the writings of Frederick Bastiat:

The liberal vision of government is easily understood and makes perfect sense if one acknowledges their misunderstanding and implied assumptions about the sources of income. Their vision helps explain the language they use and policies they support, such as income redistribution and calls for the rich to give something back.

Suppose the true source of income was a gigantic pile of money meant to be shared equally amongst Americans. The reason some people have more money than others is because they got to the pile first and greedily took an unfair share. That being the case, justice requires that the rich give something back, and if they won't do so voluntarily, Congress should confiscate their ill-gotten gains and return them to their rightful owners.

A competing liberal implied assumption about the sources of income is that income is distributed, as in distribution of income. There might be a dealer of dollars. The reason why some people have more dollars than others is because the dollar dealer is a racist, a sexist, a multinationalist or a conservative. The only right thing to do, for those to whom the dollar dealer unfairly dealt too many dollars, is to give back their ill-gotten gains. If they refuse to do so, then it's the job of Congress to use their agents at the IRS to confiscate their ill-gotten gains and return them to their rightful owners. In a word, there must be a re-dealing of the dollars or what some people call income redistribution.

The sane among us recognize that in a free society, income is neither taken nor distributed; for the most part, it is earned. Income is earned by pleasing one's fellow man. The greater one's ability to please his fellow man, the greater is his claim on what his fellow man produces. Those claims are represented by the number of dollars received from his fellow man.

Say I mow your lawn. For doing so, you pay me $20. I go to my grocer and demand, "Give me 2 pounds of steak and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man produced." In effect, the grocer asks, "Williams, you're asking your fellow man to serve you. Did you serve him?" I reply, "Yes." The grocer says, "Prove it."

That's when I pull out the $20 I earned from serving my fellow man. We can think of that $20 as "certificates of performance." They stand as proof that I served my fellow man. It would be no different if I were an orthopedic doctor, with a large clientele, earning $500,000 per year by serving my fellow man. By the way, having mowed my fellow man's lawn or set his fractured fibula, what else do I owe him or anyone else? What's the case for being forced to give anything back? If one wishes to be charitable, that's an entirely different matter.

Contrast the morality of having to serve one's fellow man in order to have a claim on what he produces with congressional handouts. In effect, Congress says, "You don't have to serve your fellow man in order to have a claim on what he produces. We'll take what he produces and give it to you. Just vote for me."

Who should give back? Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart, Bill Gates founded Microsoft, Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer. Which one of these billionaires acquired their wealth by coercing us to purchase their product? Which has taken the property of anyone?

Each of these examples, and thousands more, is a person who served his fellow men by producing products and services that made life easier. What else do they owe? They've already given.

If anyone is obliged to give something back, they are the thieves and recipients of legalized theft (or as Bastiat calls it plunder), namely people who've used Congress, including America's corporate welfare queens, to live at the expense of others. When a nation vilifies the productive and makes mascots of the unproductive, it doesn't bode well for its future.”

In his latest book “Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?” Williams exposes the liberal myth that racism is the cause of today’s plight of the African American in the inner city. Williams applies an economic analysis to the problems black Americans have faced in the past and still face in the present to show that that free-market resource allocation, as opposed to political allocation, is in the best interests of minorities. Contrasting the features of market resource allocation with those of the political arena, he explains how, in the political arena, minorities cannot realize a particular preference unless they win the will of the majority. In the market, he shows, there is a sort of parity (nonexistent in the political arena) in which one person's dollar has the same power as the next person's.

The black experience in America naturally gives rise to thinking of today’s black experience in terms of racism and oppression. But the most difficult problems black Americans face, particularly those who are poor, cannot adequately be explained by current racial discrimination. In Race and Economics, Walter Williams argues that many problems are a result of policies, regulations, and restrictions emanating from federal, state, and local governments. It is not free markets and the profit motive that have reduced opportunities, the author asserts; instead, it is the power of vested interest groups, as a means to greater wealth, to use the coercive powers of government to stifle market competition. In essence this is the new plantation devised and overseen by the liberals and their minions in he media. In other words we (the liberals and government) will take care of them, warehouse them in a kinder, gentler gulag as long as they continue to support us with their votes and voices.

Williams debunks many common labor market myths and reveals how the minimum-wage law has imposed incalculable harm on the most disadvantaged members of our society. He explains that the real problem is people are not so much underpaid as under skilled and that the real task is to help unskilled people become skilled. The author also reveals how licensing and regulation reduce economic opportunities for people, especially those who might be described as discriminated against and having little political clout. Using the example of the trucking industry before and after deregulation, he illustrates how government regulation closes entry and reinforces economic handicaps, whereas deregulation not only has helped minorities enter an industry in greater numbers, but also has benefited consumers.

People will not engage in activities, including racial discrimination, says Williams, if the cost is too high. In markets, because transactions are mostly an individual affair, it is unnecessary to win the approval or permission of others; the costs and benefits are a private matter. But in the political arena, each citizen has only one vote, meaning that, unlike the free market, a minority cannot register the intensity of his preference. Further, increased concentration of political power at the national level handicaps minorities in the sense that their votes become

Many people see racism as a problem that exists in the private sector, that can be solved by officials in the public sector. Walter Williams turns this popular view of racism on its head. Public policies often put minorities at a disadvantage. Racists often find it easier to discriminate through public policy than through private enterprise. Williams is extending the cost-driven theoretical arguments of Gary Becker on the economics of discrimination. He uses many interesting examples to support the idea that government intervention serves as the primary means of discrimination: minimum wage laws, licensing, and other restrictions on otherwise free markets. These are controversial propositions that will offend some readers. Hopefully most people will read it critically and in so doing benefit from its well-reasoned and supported arguments. You can read a preview of Williams’ book by clicking here and be sure to read pages 17 and 18 where he talks about the difference between material and moral poverty.

Several days ago Rep. Allen West said he believes that the Democratic Party is akin to a modern-day “plantation.” In an interview on Wednesday night’s “O’Reilly Factor,” he told guest host Laura Ingraham that he is the “modern-day Harriet Tubman“ and that he wants to lead fellow African Americans away from the ”21st century plantation.”

West made extremely bold statements throughout the interview, apparently undeterred by any negative response he might receive from the Democratic Party or from fellow African Americans. Commenting on anger that was seen at a Congressional Black Caucus (of which West is the only GOP member) town hall meeting in Detroit this week, he said:

“The people on that plantation are upset because they’ve been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about…I’m here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.”

West went on to dismiss some African American leaders as “nothing more than overseers over that plantation” and he stated his belief that white liberals have relied upon people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to support Democratic policies. These individuals, he claims, have failed to addresses important matters. West also discussed recent flash mobs (as per the Huffington Post):

“The freshman Republican said the fact that black leaders have done nothing in response to the recent spate of flash mobs in U.S. cities is proof of their disconnect from the black community. This summer has been marked by flash mobs in several cities, including Philadelphia and Cleveland, and are thought to be fueled by growing discontent among unemployed urban youth.”

He also went on to say that Republicans have not done well drawing black voters into the conservative movement. That said, he explained that there is an opportunity for conservatives to reach African Americans by connecting with them on the issues of “individual responsibility and accountability, faith and family, and the hard work ethic.”

A few days later Laura Ingraham interviewed one on the plantation overseers, Rep. Charles Wrangle on New York, also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and constant race baiter. Wrangle began to disparage West’s remarks until Ms. Ingraham began to challenge him. I was then retreated to his old race baiting spin zone and his rebuttal total collapsed. Click here to watch the video on Fox News. It’s well worth nine minutes of your time.

On Thursday Rep. Maxine Waters, another one of the plantation overseers, exploded with an attack on Obama for not paying more attention to the African American plantations. Waters renewed her assault on President Barack Obama on Thursday, a day after admitting that black Democrats in Congress don’t criticize him because they fear a backlash from constituents.

In a swipe at Obama’s bus tour through small-town Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, she said, “He went to rural communities and he went with a plan…to invest money in those rural communities in order to develop jobs.

“We want the rural poor to be attended to,” Waters said in an interview on CNN. “But we also want the urban poor to be attended to.”

In a separate interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, she picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal. “Take a look at this headline,” she said, “‘Obama aims to keep white voters on board.’ Well we want to be on board, too.”

The California Democrat’s comments are the first sign of a rift between Obama and his most steadfast supporters, and were quickly picked up by radio host Rush Limbaugh who called Obama’s Mid-West trip the “white-like-me tour.”

“Obama does not seem to want to hang around with them,” Limbaugh said, referring to African Americans. “Obama does not seem to want to do anything for them.

“Maxine, listen to me,” Limbaugh said. “He’s ignoring you because he knows he’s got you. Why spend any money or time with the cow when you already get the milk for free?”

The Democrat hit the airwaves a day after asking black voters in Detroit to “unleash” her and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) so they could feel free to attack Obama’s policies.

Calling it “the reality of politics,” the California congresswoman said, “If we go after the president, you’re going after us.”

“We don’t put pressure on the president because you all love the president. You are very proud to have a black man, first time in the history of the United States of America.

“When you tell us it’s all right and you unleash us and you tell us you are

“We don’t know what the strategy is,” Waters continued. “We don’t know why, on this trip that he’s on in the United States, he’s not in the black community.”

Waters said she and other black Democrats in Congress “love” Obama, but added “We’re getting tired.”

She added, “We want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do or what he’s prepared to lead on… but our people are hurting.”

On Thursday, Waters contrasted the African American unemployment rate of 15.9 percent – which she said was the highest since the Great Depression – with the overall rate for the country of 9.1 percent. “It’s unconscionable,” she said.

And she said Obama should be using his bully pulpit to call in bank leaders and telling them, “We bailed you out, now you have got to put money back

Last night Sean Hannity had Niger Ennis of the Congress on Racial Equality and Jehmu Greene, a Democratic strategist in a head to head dust up on this issue of the new plantation. Green, the typical Black liberal tried to defend the plantation while Ennis, a conservative Black, supported West’ comments. Click here to watch the video.

Obama, the grand master of the plantation is off on a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard where he will stay in his $56,000 per week ocean-view home and hob nob with the rich and famous, all wealthy liberals and supporters of the plantation system. To him, as Rush Limbaugh told Maxine Waters, why buy the cow when you get the milk free. Neither Obama, nor any other liberal can do a damn thing for the Black community. They have been trying for years by dumping trillions of dollars into the plantation system and the results keep getting worse. Wasn’t it the icon of the liberals, John F. Kennedy who said; “A rising tide lifts all boats?” As Walter Williams said you cannot help the Black community without helping all communities. After all it is the rich who create the jobs, not the poor.

Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia gave a stirring address the other day at a local Baptist Church where he laid it on the people of the Black community for the moral poverty.

Unless the Black leaders like Mayor Nutter, Allan West, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, and Niger Ennis can convince the occupants of the liberal plantation having babies out of wedlock, lack of education to develop skills, personal appearance, development of a work ethic, learning to speak properly, and showing respect for all of society the liberal plantation system will prevail.

Monday, August 8, 2011

The Story The National Media Won’t Cover

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act”. — George Orwell

Over this past weekend an incident took place at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. Hundreds of African American youths ran rampage like ancient barbarians through the fair at closing time assaulting white fair goers, smashing car windows and vandalizing homes. Not a word of this event was shown on CBS, NBC, ABC and other national main stream media.

Fox News reported on Saturday:

“Milwaukee police officers are investigating a string of mob-like actions involving a very large and unruly crowd near the Wisconsin State Fair Thursday night, where several people were badly injured and cars and homes were rampaged, Fox6 News reported.

Twenty-four people were arrested inside the fairgrounds after fights broke out, State Fair officials said. The violence continued after closing time outside the park.

State Fair Park CEO Rick Frenette said seven park police officers were injured, including two who were taken to the hospital.

Milwaukee Police said just after 11 p.m. they responded to complaints of an unruly mob attacking cars, people and leaving damage in its path.

Hundreds of young people left the fairgrounds and made their way down to the surrounding neighborhoods, smashing car windows, throwing rocks and beating people who were leaving the fair.

Several people were punched in the face, a child was pushed to the ground, one woman required stitches and another will need surgery for her injuries.

Police are continuing to search for suspects involved in the incident.

One witness said he saw a group of 20-30 young men attack someone walking by.

"A group came through and the guy was kind of not really looking and was making his way through the crowd like anybody else would, and just wound up on his knees and they wound up punching him," the witness said.

"I had one kid you know asking me to sit on my porch until it cleared up because he was afraid to walk by himself."

Witnesses described the mobs as young African American teens. Milwaukee Aldermen Bob Donovan and Joe Dudzik released a bold statement on Friday about what they called a "deteriorating African American culture in our city," Fox 6 News reported.”

A bold statement indeed! What did Messrs Donovan and Dudzik expect? This stuff has been escalating across the United States for the past ten years as the African American community has become more and more wards of the state and held to less and less accountability. They claim to be victims of a racist society and are supported in this belief by left wing politicians and race-baiters. They are not held into account for their lack of education even though we spend billions on the failed public school system. Unemployment in the African American community, especially among the youth, is approaching 20%. Children have babies out of wedlock and their children do the same. The African American culture has debased itself into gangster rap with sociopathic lyrics advocating a victim society with oppression from the white society.

Now, this wasn't the worst ever in America. The race riots of the Red Summer of 1919, for example, sometimes involved thousands of people at a time. But it is certainly something new and terrifying for the Wisconsin State Fair, which, like all state fairs, is normally a peaceful and traditional celebration of the state's agricultural heritage. It's pure Americana with an extra helping of capitalism, as the ten-day celebration at State Fair Park injects the small suburb of West Allis with its most significant jolt of commercial activity every year. Homeowners and businesses in all directions rent out parking spaces on their lots, driveways, and yards to the overflow crowds of families who travel hundreds of miles to attend and eat bratwurst and apple pie.

In the public debate the next day, the fair management reported that they would have an increased police presence for the rest of the fair, and they would institute a curfew for the first time; no one under 18 would be admitted without parent or guardian after 5:00pm. This would likely prevent repeat occurrences in this venue, but of course that is only a partial response (and an unfair insult to the tens of thousands of non-troublemaking teens who attend without incident). Preventing it from happening again isn't enough; society needs to explore why such barbarism could occur in the first place.

In his very thorough coverage of the event on his WISN talk show, radio host Mark Belling made special note of the demeanor of the mob. Contrary to the traditional liberal assumption that mobs turn violent out of anger and poverty, numerous reports indicated the maniacal grins, the ferocious smiles, the sheer happiness of the attackers. They were joyful, not angry; this was fun for them. These thugs engaged in horrific unprovoked violence against innocent, unarmed, unsuspecting bystanders, just because they got a kick out of doing so.

There is much that our society must do to deal with this problem, and police presence is only a very small part of it. If we treat this as merely a security issue, we will miss the forest for the trees. For it's larger than just the Wisconsin State Fair; it's just a symptom of a number of significant social cancers.

Americans have always been solidly against mob action, ever since our founding era, when revolutionary student Alexander Hamilton stood down a crowd to protect Loyalist Myles Cooper from the rebel horde. Our revolution was the opposite of the French Revolution, for example — a campaign for prosperous tranquility, rather than a campaign for vengeance and anarchy (see Ann Coulter's marvelous treatment of this issue in her new book, Demonic).

But the left has spent some fifty years advocating the use of mob action — the protest marches of the 60s, the sit-ins of the 70s, even the virtual takeovers of public buildings such as college halls a generation ago, and state capitols this very year — which brings us back to Wisconsin.

Who participated in the State Fair riots? This was no single organized gang of trade unionists or a political party, like many mob actions have been in our past. These were young blacks, mostly male, some of whom obviously knew each other, but many of whom were previously unacquainted with their fellow marauders. Why did they join in? What could possess a person to commit vicious attacks on perfect strangers, in public, no less joining other lawbreakers and becoming — depending on whether you held the victims for the beating or threw the punches and kicks — either accomplices to the crime or a criminal yourself?

There are many reasons, and all must be considered to get the full picture.

The warping of our criminal justice system:

For fifty years, the nation's legislatures, and especially the nation's judiciaries, have changed the legal framework's approach to crime. Until the modern liberal era of the 50s and 60s, the legal structure was designed to protect the innocent from the guilty criminal class, even as individual trials were designed to protect a wrongly accused innocent from being incorrectly lumped in with the guilty. In the past two generations, however, this framework was overturned, and now protects the criminal at the expense of the law-abiding citizen. Criminals are caught and released without trial, or tried but released on a technicality, or tried and convicted but released into the community early. The system has forgotten that it's there to protect the rest of us, not to process the criminals.

The culmination of this tragic migration in jurisprudence is occurring in California even now, as the state contends with a pending judicial order to give early release to some 40,000 convicted prisoners because the jails aren't comfortable enough to satisfy some distant black robed bone head. How many of the instigators and other participants in the State Fair wilding already had a rap sheet a mile long? How many had already been caught and released too soon, free to terrorize their society again, or free to jump into the fray and join others, once it was begun?

Our jails are overcrowded with Hispanic and Black gang members who our liberal society views victims of a cruel capitalistic system that has kept them down for some unknown reasons. Liberals just can’t seem to get their heads around the fact that these people are criminals who will continue in their lives of crime as long as they are nor held totally accountable for their criminal acts. It is the life they have chosen due to the culture they are nurtured in.

I can’t count the times I have watched the 11:00 pm local news to see story after story of murder, rape, abductions and other heinous crimes committed by Hispanic or African American perpetrators. Oh yes, there are the big, publically covered trials of whites like Scott Petersen and Casey Anthony, but in numbers they are small potatoes to the everyday suffering and mayhem that goes on every day in our local communities by Hispanics and Blacks. And, they most tragic part is that these crimes are against members of their own communities.

The toxic political climate

It is unfortunate that there had never been a non-white president before now, but one unexpected minor benefit can now be seen from that history. When every president was a white male, one could hardly blame political disagreements with one or another on matters of race. The president was always a white male; so too were his predecessor and successor. One could claim that opposition was based on party, or ideology, or perhaps even region, but one could hardly say that opposition was simply because of the guy's race.

That was yesterday, but today things have changed. Many in the mainstream media have been pushing the narrative that all opposition to Barack Obama was driven by anti-black bigotry, ever since he began contending for the Democratic presidential nomination. Never mind the fact that Obama is a half white American and half Kenyan national, having virtually nothing in common with the life experiences or family history of an American black. The media have christened him an American black, and have done everything in their power to convince America that public opinion toward Obama is a bellwether for how Americans feel about American blacks in general — a moronic position, but nonetheless, it is sticking. My neighbor is Black and a general contractor who works his butt off to maintain his property and business. He does not think much of Obama. Does gthis make him a racist or an Uncle Tom?

The media has successfully ginned up an utterly unjustifiable assumption in the black community that anti-Obama political positions and activity are entirely racially based. Outrageous as it is, this toxic claim is out there, polluting the minds of a gullible electorate and an impressionable community. Real anti-white bigotry is arising, a response to non-existent anti-black bigotry imagined and decried by our malicious left-wing chattering class.

The collapse of the urban black community

Half a century ago, census and poll results agreed: the black community was more responsible, from a social perspective, than the white community. Generally speaking, in the first half of the 20th century, unwed motherhood, cohabitation, unemployment, divorce, church attendance, and criminal convictions all showed proportionately worse statistics among America's whites than among America's blacks. African Americans were members of churches, mainly Baptist, and obeyed the laws of man and God. Blacks like Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, David Webb, Deroy Murdock and Deneen Borelli have written and spoken volumes on this issue.

This all changed with LBJ's Great Society. Since the government began to reward cohabitation, sloth, and irresponsible childbearing with a warped welfare system, and since the public schools began their simultaneous attack on morality and religion in the curriculum and discipline in the halls, the community most under the thumb of city governments have suffered the most. As Chip Wood writes, a true lollipop mentality:

“But of course, the Harry Reids, Nancy Pelosis and Barack Obamas of the world will never agree. More to the point, they will never voluntarily relinquish the power, perks and prestige that pandering to greedy constituents has given them. They know that if they have to start taking away lollipops, their popularity will plunge faster than Congress’s credibility.”

Note that this is not true in rural areas or suburbs, or even in the good neighborhoods of larger cities, where blacks and whites alike own farms, blacks and whites alike own businesses, go to church, obey the law, and serve as honorable and productive members of society. And of course, like any generality, it doesn't go for everyone in the bad neighborhoods either; there are mixed neighborhoods. But it is undeniable that this cultural destruction has become most severe for the generations of blacks locked into this dependence. They have grown up on government lollipops handed out by power hungry politicians. When the lollipops run out or are not enough these “victims” demand more and if more is not provided they become angry and turn to crimes like robbery, carjacking and flash mobs where hey race into mall stores and strip the racks and shelves clean.

The warping of the black church

America was settled by immigrants of every race, color and creed. While we owe our roots to the English settlers who designed our culture and our government, today's Americans are as diverse as the colors of a rainbow. All these groups arrived with the cultural prejudices of "the old country" and have depended upon the civilizing force of our instruments of assimilation — the schools, the churches, the employment community — to soften, or hopefully even eradicate, those prejudices.

An Irish parent might badmouth the English at the dinner table; a Neapolitan parent, the Sicilians a Lutheran, the Catholics a Protestant, the Jews a white, the blacks. Such once-pervasive bigotry has been largely diminished over the last century, by the media, and by attendance at diverse schools and churches, where the authority figures actively work to minimize that inherited bigotry in support of racial, ethnic and religious tolerance. It has also been diminished by interdenominational and nationality marriage.

It has therefore been with little short of terror that religion-watchers have noted the appearance of "black liberation theology" in recent decades, spreading like a cancer through the black urban churches of the United States. While still a minority view, this perverse twisting of religion uses the structure of the church to intentionally spread anti-white bigotry, especially through such outrageous lies as the claims that the government invented AIDS to kill blacks, that the Jews run all the businesses so that blacks can't get jobs, and any number of other outrageous conspiracy theories — all to poison the malleable young congregations' minds until they hate whites as much as they have been told that whites hate them.

After a century of progress, it's only in recent decades that we have seen this "black liberation theology," as practiced by such pastors as President Obama's old minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Louis Farrakhan grow in popularity and bear such poisonous fruit as the Wisconsin State Fair mob. Instead of religion civilizing the next generation, we now have more and more churches and Madrassas that consciously set out to barbarize them.

So where do we stand, as a society?

We have armies of children, raised more by gangs than by parents, without a proper moral compass. The society releases criminals into their midst to be role models, discouraging employment by refusing to prepare children for jobs. discouraging marriage by rewarding single parenting, discouraging morality by granting tax-exempt church status to buildings that are little more than breeding grounds for hatred.

As Milwaukee's Sheriff David Clarke, Fox News commentator Juan Wiliams and entertainer Bill Cosby have been saying for years, much of the problem is for the black community to correct on its own. Decent, honorable blacks, like my neighbor, have been fleeing the slums for decades, to raise their children right in the suburbs and small towns, and who can blame them? But by doing so, they abandon their cousins to the clutches of the rappers, the gangbangers, and the Jeremiah Wrights.

From outside, the non-black community cannot help with everything, but we can pitch in a little. We can set higher standards for our schools, making a taxpayer-supported school a safe environment in which to learn again. We can return to the 1990s era welfare reforms that were finally beginning to overturn the Great Society's destruction of the family unit. We can redirect our criminal justice system to again support the innocent victims and give the benefit of the doubt to longtime incarceration of criminals so that they can't as easily return to their communities and warp young souls.

All of these disparate causes — religion, education, economics, and criminal justice — have only one thing in common besides the destruction they have wrought: they are all the province of modern American liberalism and class warfare.

It is the American left that favors corruption of traditional religion, corruption of the safety net, corruption of the prison system. It is the left that has ruled the Democratic Party for decades and virtually every city government where these problems occur. It is virtually unanimous in their support of all the very different changes that have undermined a once vital, responsible, and honorable community to render it stagnant, regressive even, feared by outsiders for the very real threats they pose.

Just as affirmative action cheats the accomplished blacks like Clarence Thomas (read his memoir on this subject!), just as the perverse rap industry cheats talented black performers like Darius Rucker (who had to change genres to record good music), all these changes have poisoned the public debate — any commenter is accused of racism for addressing the issue — as well as endangering our communities and contributing to the decline of our entire society.

The bestselling author, Brad Thor wrote in his latest book, Full Black, in true Bastiat philosophical adherence:

“When people become reliant on the state, that reliance erodes their self-respect, their sense of self-worth, their work ethic, and their independence. Finally, socialism promotes class envy and class warfare. The makers resent the takers for draining their resources and the takers resent the makers because no matter how much the takers take, they always want more. They erroneously believe that the makers have an abundant supply from which they should be continuously compelled to give.”

The needed corrections cannot happen overnight; it will take decades to replace the wrongheaded judges and racism-teaching civic leaders, and it will take generations to get past the lost generations currently at issue.

But it all begins with acknowledging the truth, throwing out the Democrats in federal, state, and local government who have promulgated these toxic policies for so long.

The right has been warning that undermining civilized behavior in the cities will have a societal cost and in so many circumstances — the wildings and flash mobs all over the country, of which the State Fair mob was just another ghastly example — the right has been proven to be, sadly, absolutely correct.