The Former President of the Oakland NAACP Is a Republican and he did Great work for the community. The party shouldn’t be the issue, the work is.

Monika

First, by being interested in business issues, he moves his little corner of the world into the bigger world of ‘real results’. I truly believe that one reason there is such dismal failure to better bring more blacks out of poverty for example is because nobody is comparing results to the real world; it’s all just numbers on paper and in political speeches and nobody is saying–like happens in the business world–you make this % of measurable improvement or we fire your ass and hire someone competent to make it happen! There is no better way to refocus your personal and group goals toward accomplishment, than to be focused on real-world results, not just speeches.

Second, the democrats have failed the blacks abysmally as leaders. It’s been decades and the situation in numbers is far worse than it began (although I grant there’s been improvement in the middle class). They have no right to ‘automatically’ get the black vote. They don’t deserve it. The blacks as a group have tremendous voting power and I’d actually like to see them use it to demand something more than pity and platitudes and the same rich (and usually white) people telling them how republicans are “not their friend” because they are often rich and white. As if the leading Dems aren’t!

I guess the problem is, every time I think of practical application, that nothing can happen without the black community itself having the gumption to demand what is good and right, not what is handout. In other words, it is not enough to demand more money for schools, if the NAACP is going to kill any bill that requires a 12th grader demonstrate a 3rd grade education prior to getting a diploma (under the assumption that the people hurt by it will be blacks. Like, “We know they won’t be competent! Then they wouldn’t have diplomas! We should give everybody a paper so they feel better.” OK. Now they get a job and they can’t do it. Who did that help again??) The diploma is still worthless and kids still can’t read or do basic math. Until actual education is seen as more relevent than ’schooling’, change is going to be tough and I’m not sure that even the best government intentions can help until enough people will stand up, be honest, speak out, and say hey, these peoples’ lives are more important than hurt feelings and politics.

Anyway, at least if the democrats felt they had to WORK for the black vote, maybe they would put a little more effort in, since right now they basically get it free by default, simply because in my view they via media have so helped convince blacks that “they are the only friend.”

This is somewhat off topic but it relates to the ‘real world’ result, and business and jobs, and also to another commentary thread in this blog so I’m going to go ahead and post it. The full page is a chapter in John Taylor Gatto’s book on the history of education in America, a section titled ‘intellectual espionage’, http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3b.htm

Those interested in the issues of education, crime, and business accomplishment for blacks might find these excerpts thought provoking:

By 1940, the literacy figure for all states stood at … 80 percent for blacks. Notice that for all the disadvantages blacks labored under, four of five were nevertheless literate. Six decades later, at the end of the twentieth century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks … can’t read at all. … black illiteracy doubled … we spend three to four times as much real money on schooling as we did sixty years ago, but sixty years ago virtually everyone, black or white, could read. [...] … according to the Justice Department, 80 percent of the incarcerated violent criminal population is illiterate or nearly so (and 67 percent of all criminals locked up). [...] When literacy was first abandoned as a primary goal by schools, white people were in a better position than black people because they inherited a three-hundred-year-old American tradition of learning to read at home by matching spoken sound with letters, thus home assistance was able to correct the deficiencies of dumbed-down schools for whites. But black people had been forbidden to learn to read under slavery, and as late as 1930 only averaged three to four years of schooling, so they were helpless when teachers suddenly stopped teaching children to read, since they had no fall-back position. [from footnote] A growing body of documentation ties illiteracy causally to violent crime. A study by Dennis Hogenson titled “Reading Failure and Juvenile Delinquency” (Reading Reform Foundation) attempted to correlate teenage aggression with age, family size, number of parents present in home, rural versus urban environment, socio-economic status, minority group membership, and religious preference. None of these factors produced a significant correlation. But one did. As the author reports, “Only reading failure was found to correlate with aggression in both populations of delinquent boys.” An organization of ex-prisoners testified before the Sub-Committee on Education of the U.S. Congress that in its opinion illiteracy was an important causative factor in crime “for the illiterate have very few honest ways to make a living.” In 1994 the U.S. Department of Education acknowledged that two-thirds of all incarcerated criminals have poor literacy.

Of course he’s doing it because breaking the stranglehold the dems have gained on black votes will crush the democratic party’s future, but it is still welcome to see. Is Dean or anyone on the dem side doing anything similar?

Tim Shea is not being a racist, he’s just pointing out Wallace’s conflict of interest. He is chair of the NAACP, but then he switched parties, not because it was political or because it would help black people. He only switched parties in order to appease his business partners. Talk about a coward.

But since Wallace is into appeasement, then he is right to become a Republican. Appeasement is the way of the GOP. Let’s remember Ronald Reagan running away from Beirut when terrorists killed 241 of our brave marines. Run Ronnie Run!!!! If memory is correct, I believe that Reagan wore a pink jogging suit that day as he ran away from the fight, and he screamed like a girl.

Then George W. Bush decided to ignore Clinton’s warnings and Bush instead chose to appease the terrorists during his early months in the White House. Then on 9/11, we learned what Bush’s legacy will be. Now Bush continues to appease al Qaeda and Osama bin Ladin by giving them a free pass.

Then when faced with the most dangerous man in the world – you know who I’m talking about – the guy that Republicans are scared to even discuss – Kim Jong Il. Remember when Bush retreated from South Korea last year just after Kim Jong Il got tough. That really made Bush look like a p**sy!

But back to Wallace, good luck to ya. You made your choice. You decided to abandon your race and put your business first. That’s fair enough. I wish you the best in your business, and even more, I wish you the best when you look at yourself in the mirror every morning.

Which, by definition, is an IQ=100.

Sharpshooter — I was equally disgusted by Shea’s dunderheaded statement. It spoke volumes about his attitude.

RASCIST!!!!!

Maybe the libs will throw Oreos at this guy too…

When I have kids I will teach them to give their best effort and apply themselves to whatever task is before them. I will teach them that with God all things are possible. I will also teach them not to be defined by their association with any group or organization. I will teach them to think independently, which is something many self-declaring Republicans and Democrats fail to do. I will teach them to conduct independent research to make reasonable and logical choices. Finally, I will teach them that to whom much is given, much is required. They will be blessed to live in an upper middle-class household with access to the best that money has to offer. But they will understand that their fortune does not give them license to condescend to others less fortunate. Instead, they will be taught to give of their time, talent, and treasure to help others who are less fortunate.

Those are lessons that I learned from an elderly black woman with an 8th grade education. Those are not lessons being taught by the Republican or Democratic party.

The problem with the rhetoric of almost every die-hard Republican or Democrat is that neither has anything to say that really matters. Most talk in sound bites (house blacks and welfare state) and offer very few solutions that will improve the lives of all Americans. As I have said, no one should be a slave to the Democrats. But neither should anyone be a slave to Republicans.

Doug at Considerettes notes an interesting political story that should shake up South Florida politics, especially for those who want to toss race cards around during election season. Scott Maxwell at the Orlando Sentinel reports that the head of the…

Mark Daniels

(But you already knew that)

I, for one, do not discredit the intelligence of the average American. Republicans have been talking more sense than Democrats for decades now, it was bound to pay off. Now, about that border situation…