Why is this woman smiling?
I’ve been on a roll with the racial stuff lately. One of my disgruntled detractors finds it disturbing that I always seem to end up “siding” with the race other than my own. Sometimes it’s incidental; other times deliberate. Others are upset that I seem to always blog about race. In fact, I’ve got three draft posts, all race-related, screaming to be published. I’ve explained why I take that approach, but if you’re not a regular, long-time reader and just a casual reader who checks the archives now and then or never, you probably missed it. Check Do You Hate Black People? and other posts. This post may be helpful, too.
Although I never intended to write about race and politics so much in my long-ago bi-weekly column and on this blog, racial topics take up a lot of my bandwidth. I’m drawn to such topics. I hear and read opinions about race and read opinions disguised as news stories about race in mainstream media, and left-leaning reporters seldom get it “right.”
I focus on the media because, like it or not, they are influential. I’m a commentator, not a community activist, so my focus is on how politicians, organizations, the media, and entertainment industry portray blacks. Individual blacks I know work hard and try to live their lives in peace, but system-wide, race-based group preferences have fostered a disturbing entitlement mentality. If all else fails, one can always use skin color to lodge a complaint.
I’ve been tempted, but I refuse to do it.
For the most part, liberals see minorities as oppressed. I see them as blessed, fortunate to live in a free, vibrant country where they can succeed if they dare. When liberals write about race, they begin from a position of weakness: that blacks are put-on children who need government to survive. I start from a position of strength: that individual blacks who’ve shaken off the victim robes and embraced America’s vast opportunities can and do succeed, and that big government intrusions have provided strong incentives not to try.
The whites-as-oppressors thing is so old, and I frankly don’t care if it exists in the real world or only in people’s minds. But there are too many people who make a living perpetuating its existence. As long as they do, I’ll keep blogging and speaking about race from a totally unexpected and out-of-the-mainstream point of view, and as often as I deem necessary.
Make sense? If not, read the archives (beginning in late 2003) and read this blog every day.
On a final note, I must clear up a misconception about this conservative. I can’t speak for others, but I don’t push the “colorblind” idea because I think it’s stupid. We couldn’t ignore differences if we tried. That’s not the way God made us. He created a truly diverse universe that is beautiful and awesome. Its various colors, shapes, and sizes are pleasing to the eye. I won’t pretend we’re all the same except for skin color. We are all part of the American culture, but each of us is also part of a sub-cultural group. These have much in common, but they also have their differences.
(God, in his infinite and unknowable wisdom, created different racial groups for his own purpose. It is not unbiblical for us to recognize and acknowledge differences between and within those groups. Spiritually, though, there are no differences. Each of us will be judged for our sins, and “racism” or “superiority” won’t excuse those sins. God’s elect belong to all racial groups, and he saves them without regard to race. He is a true equal opportunity Employer.)
We can no more ignore these differences than we could a mack truck barreling down the street as we go to cross it. What I advocate is colorblind government policy, which is definitely do-able. As long as “affirmative action” exists, however, and government tries to justify it, we will never have colorblind policy. As long as this hypocrisy flourishes, you’ll hear from me. As long as blacks embrace the double standard, I’ll keep blogging and writing about how wrong it is. As far as I can tell, I’m one of only a few doing so consistently and honestly.
If my posts disturb you and cause you discomfort, you have my sympathy. You really do. Take a pill, stop reading the blog and pick up a book instead, start working out — whatever you need to do to relieve the stress, because I promise you this: It’s going to get a lot worse.
Update: Commenter Tiffany says:
Your post on ‘Do You Hate Black People’ helped me to understand you a lot better in terms of what you feel called to do and though I don’t always agree with you, I can definitely respect your convictions. I admire folk with conviction.
With that being said, I think that some on your readers relish when you make these types of posts because it allows them to say the things they really *wish* they could say about black folks but probably don’t in public. Being an avid reader of your site for some time know, the commentary tends to be really reflective and constructive in the beginning of the thread and tends to descend into “piling on” of the Negroes by the thread’s end.
That is just my general observation…Otherwise keep it coming!
Thanks for being a regular reader, Tiffany, and you’re right. People sometimes will use what I say for nefarious purposes and pile it on. But as I’ve written before, that’s a risk I take running a public blog open to all eyes. The best I can do is make sure the discussion is civil.
A reader pointed me to this gem by Jason Whitlock:
[Bill] Cosby spoke for nearly an hour. He was funny, articulate, passionate, concise, profound and inspiring. Controversial? Not in any way. He didn’t utter one word or phrase or opinion that I haven’t heard from my parents.
…
He blasted parents for being uninvolved in their kids’ education. He invited guest speakers who shared their own stories of overcoming incredible odds or they talked about the startling negative health, education, murder and poverty statistics impacting black America.
…
Blaming racism is a copout, an admission of inferiority, an easy excuse of the sedated. Cosby wants to help black people realize that in America — even though the country isn’t perfect — the solution to any problem begins with the person with the problem.
Update II (5/26): Commenter Terrence says:
You crack me up… in a good way.
Thanks for your insights. I believe the lure of racial topics in your writing is from a desire to know the truth, even if it make us feel uncomfortable. But that’s a good thing – keep up the good work.
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La Shawn you always make my morning
As an african american myself, I know it is not easy to do what you do. To stand for what is right is never easy, and most of the time, I find that you are suppose to stand by a black person no matter what.
Truth is, that the email you recieved yesterday came with a 2-fold arguement against you. First being that you were black, and the second is being a female. So you were suppose to be down with the sistahood and down with yo’ peeps as well.
Stick with it! Only good can come from standing for what is right.
Good thoughts, well-put, as usual.
Sister, this will be nothing you haven’t already thought, but the criticism you cite shouts something to me.
Your critics say you always take a position siding with a race other than your own.
The presupposition is that there is a “black position,” a black ideology; that your race requires you to have certain political and ethical positions. Who determined that? Who made that decree?
As a white, I immediately wonder, “So, what is ‘the white position’? What am I required to think, in order to be ‘a good white’? Who are ‘the white leaders’ who dictate these positions? Where are the white organizations that represent my white concerns?”
Is John Kerry my leader and representative? (God forbid.) How about Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton (ditto and ditto)? They’re all white, right?
But isn’t Rush Limbaugh white? And Ann Coulter? And wasn’t Ronald Reagan?
So this is why critics of the blackthink mentality speak of a plantation — which really ticks off its practitioners. But boy, if you dare to go your way, or Clarence Thomas’, or Condie Rice’s, you’re GUILTY. Guilty of FWB (Freethinking While Black).
Well, all that is just a long-winded way of saying, “Bingo.”
God bless you, sister.
Hang in there young lady! Those that speak the truth are often castigated and persecuted for their beliefs. Believe me when I say, “You speak for conservatives all over the world, regardless of skin color!” May God bless you and keep you.
Excellent posts.
A book I read recently has really opened my eyes to so much, and validated thoughts as well. I highly recommend Thomas Sowell’s “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”. (A collection of essays, actually.) He writes excellent columns as well. (Townhall)
Never betray the truth. Those who refuse to listen just aren’t ready, but you have “planted a seed”.
Have a good one …
That’s not the way God made us. He created a truly diverse universe that is beautiful and awesome.”
I agree, which is why I’m for affirmative action.
All institutions (colleges, companies, etc) benefit from having a diversity of races, religions, genders, and viewpoints. Affirmative action programs — if properly applied (i.e., no quotas, no “free rides”, etc.) — foster that societal benefit.
Treating affirmative action like it is some handout to unqualified and undeserving minorities is the wrong way to look at it. Ideally, that isn’t the goal of affirmative action.
I know I’m probably in the minority (no pun intended) here, but I thought it was interesting that LaShawn and I believe in the same underlying premise, and come to polar opposites in terms of policy.
LaShawn, sadly like Lt Gov Steele, in Md, and Lynn Swann in Pa., you have left the Democrat Plantation and the Liberal overseers are really mad. Can’t have no uppity Blacks telling them what “our people” need. Keep up the good work! Kemp
On July 3, 1998 at 11:45 p.m. God handed me a granddaughter who was biracial. There were many challenges our family had to face after she was born. First black blood in our white, Norwegian-descent family. Her father MIA. Her mother, my daughter, recovering from an abusive relationship, needing both financial and emotional support and finally, my husband and new grandfather totally devastated, angry with his daughter, angry with me and I in turn angry with him. To say it was painful is an understatement. But you know what, when that little child of God climbed in my husband’s lap and hugged her “pop pop”, the grace of God washed away all that pain and anger. My husband died unexpectedly when my gdaughter was only 5 years old, but in that short time, he and our whole family learned what love is really all about.
God is in charge. He gave us free will, but He will intervene when necessary to show us the error of our ways and if we listen to Him, blessings are sure to follow.
The reason you come out on certain issues is first and foremost because you are a regenerate child of Christ….and therefore as you grow in Christ, truth becomes all prevailing as it should…Truth is all that matters and to a growing Christian regardless of color and gender , you will always try to side with Truth…….regardless of what people call you and regardless of whether it is popular with your ethnic group…
This is wonderful fruit!!
Bless you
Just thinking: the generation of blacks at the start of the 20th century, who had themselves been slaves
(and not merely read about slavery in a book);
who had been bought and sold, and flogged, and treated as property–THEY didn’t think that they were so handicapped by their experience that they couldn’t keep a two-parent home;
that they couldn’t learn;
that they had to turn to drugs;
or that learning
was to “betray” their blackness and coddle up to the whites.
And if you look at statistics for the period, you’ll find that the “morals” of black Americans then–measured by families, illegitimate births,
jail records, etc.–were far superior to those of many white immigrant groups of the era.
Yet now the black family unit is nearly extinct (should be on the endangered species list); the male role models are gang-bangers; and learning
is to be discouraged.
Morale? You CAN rise above your circumstances;
and circumstances don’t have to dictate who you are.
Your post on ‘Do You Hate Black People’ helped me to understand you a lot better in terms of what you feel called to do and though I don’t always agree with you, I can definitely respect your convictions. I admire folk with conviction.
With that being said, I think that some on your readers relish when you make these types of posts because it allows them to say the things they really *wish* they could say about black folks but probably don’t in public. Being an avid reader of your site for some time know, the commentary tends to be really reflective and constructive in the beginning of the thread and tends to descend into “piling on” of the Negroes by the thread’s end.
That is just my general observation.
Otherwise keep it coming!
You said:
“Why is this woman smiling?”
I don’t know why, but a beautiful woman looks even more beautiful with a smile on her face.
But even without a smile on your face, you are still a beautiful woman!
“Affirmative action” has always seemed to me to be discriminatory, in that another (perhaps more qualified) person loses out to someone who supposedly needs preferential treatment, which I find just plain wrong. And all this “dumbing” down of our daily lives for fear of giving offense is becoming more and more onerous. If someone is a jerk, I am grateful that at my age, I am finally elderly enough to get away with calling it like I see it!
We are ALL members of the HUMAN race. And there are lots and lots of truly despicable human beings of every color and nationality – so why be constrained from observing that, just as we can observe that there are many, many, many more truly remarkable people on this planet – including LaShawn, one of the more awesome HUMANS around. When we can FINALLY at some point (probably long after I’m taking a dirt nap), start to treat each other with honesty, consideration and respect – the world will be a truly stupendous place.
I guess it’s up to each of us to do the best we can do WITH OURSELVES and by extension, those we influence, for as long as we are here and maybe, someday, our HUMAN race will truly reflect the deity that created it!
Thank you for this post. Keep smiling and keep telling the truth. You say you are not a community activist. I think your voice would serve well in the activist arena.
La Shawn, the only people I see going against THEIR race is your detractors, and they are going against the HUMAN race… That’s the one I belong to… I wish everyone felt that way…
I get accused of being a racist all the time, over my stance on the ILLEGAL immigration thing, and I have to remind people that my stance is America 1st and that Mexican is a nationality, NOT a race…
Keep hammering on em La Shawn, you’re winning…
It takes true courage to stand on principle. You are a real trailblazer.
Thanks for speaking for me on issues of race.
Today in the sports section of the KC Star (www.kansascity.com) Jason Whitlock gave a “critique” of Bill Cosby’s speech. Cosby has been traveling the country at his own expense (he can certainly afford it) trying to get black people to be responsible for their own actions (or inactions).
You really must read the whole article, but here are some highlights:
“He’s been labled a sellout and an Uncle Tom. His critics claimthat wealth has compromised Cosby’s ability to offer an opinion on the plight and condition of ordinary American black folk”
I suppose unlike Sharpton, Jackson, Jefferson, et al.
“Cosby was plain spoken, direct and brutally honest. I’ll share a couple of his highlight quotes”
“Harriet Tubman had to put a gun to some (slaves) heads to get them off the plantation”, Cosby said, referring to the queen of the Underground Railroad. “You know why? Because some of us want to stay at-risk and disadvantaged.”
Cosby later quoted Malcolm X: “Malcom said Negroes shouldn’t accept welfare because it makes you lazy.”
Whitlock says, “Blaming racism is a copout, an admission of inferiority, an easy excuse of the sedated. Cosby wants to help black people realize that in America – even though the country isn’t perfect – the solution to any problem begins with the person with the problem.”
Here is the link:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/14660360.htm
Thank you La Shawn for providing this forum. As a white male, I am very often too reluctant to express my opinions on this subject. There are times I feel disqualified from this topic because I am white, even though it is plainly obvious that race is not the determining factor in having opinions.
True, open and honest discussions like this is the sole hope for tearing down invisible walls. As with most other polarizing topics, I find the opposition simply will not listen to reason.
I wholeheartedly agree with Dan Phillips and Gayle Miller!
La Shawn, I read your blog all the time. I admire the way you speak. Who else can better speak to the problems of a race than those of the same race? I’ve always admired Bill Cosby for coming out and speaking to the people about things he sees wrong and how you can better your life. If we had more respected people speaking up to our youth of today, perhaps a difference could be made in the lives of all young people.
My daughter has 4 children, 2 of them teenagers (son,17, and daughter 16), and she preaches to them and to their friends constantly that sex and youth does not mix. It gets you an unwanted pregnancy, and sometimes, it gets you a lifelong STD or more! And, it’s more about your character than how many friends you have. Hopefully, she has touched many young people’s lives with not being afraid to speak to them on these subjects. AND, to boot, she’s been a single Mom for 6 years!
If you haven’t read “He talk like a White Boy” by Joseph C. Phillips, I highly recommend everyone read his book! He was the husband to one of the daughters in The Bill Cosby Show. He’s now a father and speaks out on all these things.
Thanks, Barb. Met Phillips, read his book, and reviewed it for National Review Online. Good stuff. – Admin
[quote](God, in his infinite and unknowable wisdom, created different racial groups for his own purpose. It is not unbiblical for us to recognize and acknowledge differences between and within those groups. Spiritually, though, there are no differences. Each of us will be judged for our sins, and “racism†or “superiority†won’t excuse those sins. God’s elect belong to all racial groups, and he saves them without regard to race. He is a true equal opportunity Employer.)[/quote]
~Very well said, and if more Christians recognized that we wouldn’t have this sinful condition we call “black church” “white church” “chinese church” and so on.
“Blaming racism is a copout, an admission of inferiority, an easy excuse of the sedated. Cosby wants to help black people realize that in America – even though the country isn’t perfect – the solution to any problem begins with the person with the problem.â€
Isn’t that simply “blaming the victim”?
Look, I hear what people are saying, and it’s undeniable that minorities sometimes claim to be victims of racism whenever things don’t go their way. When this happens, they should be condemned.
But that doesn’t negate the equally undeniable fact that racism exists.
Why is it “either/or” with some people? Isn’t it obvious that (a) blacks (just like everybody) have to take personal responsibility for their lives AND (b) blacks don’t have equal opportunities simply because society is NOT colorblind and racism IS a problem?
Aren’t BOTH of these things true? I see a false dichtomy in some of these comments.
Why is it “either/or†with some people? Isn’t it obvious that (a) blacks (just like everybody) have to take personal responsibility for their lives AND (b) blacks don’t have equal opportunities simply because society is NOT colorblind and racism IS a problem?
I don’t think Cosby, or I, are saying that it is an either/or situation. I think what Cosby is saying (and he says it better than I) is that whatever your situation or the cause of that situation the person responsible for extricating you from that situation is you.
Yes there is racism the same as there is prejudice against obesity, the working disabled and the lower end of the economic scale. What Cosby is saying, basically, is, “Do something about it. Act. Do not accept that you cannot change your circumstances.”
Does racism make it harder to succeed? Yes. Just ask Jackie Robinson, Condi Rice, Clarence Thomas, G W Carver, to name a few that faced up to racism and decided that “it” wasn’t going to defeat them.
I have this same conversation all the time with my lady friend. There is not a day goes by that she does not encounter some form of racism…sometimes extremely covert…somtimes overt…but, as she says to me, “I can’t let it bother me or detract me from what I have to do. I can’t help it if there are people like that. The people that I know and that know me may still have hidden racist tendencies, but not toward me….they like to think that I am not the stereotypical black. I like to think that I am changing people, one at a time.”
Kman, curious. What do you consider “racism?” Can you give a concrete example of what “racism” looks like?
First, I want to thank you for your blog. I enjoy reading your thoughtful, often passionate, posts.
I do disagree on one point: I don’t believe there are different races. And my belief is based on references in Scripture speaking to the fact that we are “one blood” and we all come from Adam. Science has proven that one human couple carry enough variations w/in their genes to account for all the outside differences we see throughout the world. (You can find great material on this at http://www.answersingenesis.org/)
However, I do agree that we have different cultures and sub-cultures. The sad thing is that we as Americans can’t seem to become one united culture aknowledging our sameness and accepting our differences. As you said so well, even within the same family we find many differences. And the best families are those that embrace and love each other despite idiosyncracies, differences, and imperfections.
Please, keep walkin’ the walk and talkin’ the talk!
Thanks, Sheryl. For lack of a better word, I used race. I think ethnic groups may be more accurate, though. – Admin
Yes, Sheryl, there is only one race – the Human race.
Cosby is so right! you know he has to be doing something right when all the poverty pimps start throwing spittle his way. And to the lady asking you La Shawn if you hate Black folks….I did and I am black, you wanna know why ms? It is the very same reasons that Cosby is speaking out about? I know from personal experience how cruel and stupid our people can be, I was one of those who was called trying to act white (whatever that is) is because even though I was diagnosed as LD I did try in school, Black criminals broke into my home when my grandfather died, so tell me why I should love Black folks huh?! Well, I’m an adult now and have more confidence in myself, and I realized that these people are losers,and we shouldn’t listen to losers! The ancient Egyptians are the architects of the Pyramids of Giza,would you classify that as being white? Stupid people don’t build anything; they destroy in fact.I am a Christian now too, but, if given the chance I try to encourage young Blacks like myself to for their dreams and to not listen to losers!
Kudos La Shawn…keep up the great work.
While I may be in the minority in my thinking I do have an observation to make. Affirmative Action and other social programs that favor any person based on race are by their very nature discriminatory. If you cotinually tell someone they can not compete with out special treatment you enforce the idea that minorities are inferior. This is the most insidious form of racism in the world because the average person doesn’t even know they are being programed. Then you add to this the race baters like Jessie jackson and Al Sharpton who use the division to advance their own agendas and line their own nests..it becomes a even harder to break the cycle.
What you and Bill Cosby does is try to get people to see that while no one has the same struggle to suceed we all have struggles and it is up to us to overcome them.
Again La Shawn keep up the great work..it is an important cause.
You crack me up… in a good way.
Thanks for your insights. I believe the lure of racial topics in your writing is from a desire to know the truth, even if it make us feel uncomfortable. But that’s a good thing – keep up the good work.
A pretty picture, La Shawn, which is matched by the post. Keep up the great work; this blogging, this internet soap box where we can share our views with the world-quite an amazing tool. And you use it to great advantage. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.
Fine old speech by Frederick Douglas, delivered in 1865; probably linked somewhere, but worth repeating
http://www.blackhistorybook.com/fred_doug/what_black_wants.html
“Men are so constituted that they derive their conviction of their own possibilities largely from the estimate formed of them by others. If nothing is expected of a people, that people will find it difficult to contradict that expectation. . .
“I am not asking for sympathy at the hands of abolitionists, sympathy at the hands of any. .. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. (Applause.) . . . Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, “What shall we do with the negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, — don’t disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner-table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot-box, let him alone, — don’t disturb him! (Applause.) If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone, — your interference is doing him a positive injury. Gen. Banks’s “preparation” is of a piece with this attempt to prop up the negro. Let him fall if he cannot stand alone! If the negro cannot live by the line of eternal justice, so beautifully pictured to you in the illustration used by Mr. Phillips, the fault will not be yours, it will be his who made the negro, and established that line for his government. (Applause.) Let him live or die by that. If you will only untie his hands, and give him a chance, I think he will live.. . “
Unfortunately I do not think diversity can be achieved without some outside influences. I’ve said this many times. Human nature is the enemy of diversity. When all things are equal the decision boils down to a matter of comfort to many who are in positions of influence.
There is nothing laudable about skin color diversity for its own sake. I question what is so “compelling” about the government’s “interest” in discriminating against one race, especially in the form of entitlements and lowered standards, in favor of another. It is unconstiutional, morally repugnant, and in direct contradiction to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has been misapplied to a shameful degree over the past 40 years.
The false and unsustainable assumption that artificial and forced diversity is good is just cover for low achievement, failure, and the need to mask it with government policies. Blacks who support such odious policies knowing how unjust they are…if I weren’t a Christian, I’d complete that thought.
But since I am, I won’t.
“The whites-as-oppressors thing is so old, and I frankly donÂ’t care if it exists in the real world or only in peopleÂ’s minds.”
I was wondering if you could clarify what you mean by this remark. My impression as someone who reads your blog regularly is that resolution of the whole race issue involves a profound spiritual, moral and psychological transformation which no government program can ultimately provide. This is a view (if I understand you correctly) that I am in complete agreement with. Social problems are a reflection of inner conditions and it is also true that there are very real social challenges impeding all Americans from fulfilling their God-given potential. Is it that you “don’t care” about the attitude and behavior of some white people and its impact on black people, or is it that you are not personally focused on that particular thing?
Thanks Lashawn
I’m personally not focused on it and don’t ponder whether it truly exists. Blacks have much bigger problems that any perceived racism on the part of whites, as I’ve explained many times. The impact of perceived oppression if any, especially on people of my own and later generations, is negligible. And laughable. But as humans often do, we tend to use “racism” as an excuse not to try and to mask failure. – Admin
Speaking of race:
Drug prohibition is destroying the black community. Yet that community calls for ever more vigorous enforcement.
It is as if they have never heard of alcohol prohibition.
I see the Billy Sunday effect in action: all that is in view is the goal. The side effects are never considered.
BTW the same goes for the national hysteria about illegal immigration.
No one is considering the possible side effects of what is proposed.
Take tightening the border. When border controls were looser 50% of illegals went home after they made some money.
Now the number is 25%. If we tighten enough we will slow the inward flows some but reduce the out flows to near zero.
Side effects of immigration laws.
Since we have a thriving black market in forged papers some kind of national ID is proposed. There may be some very unfortunate side effects to this proposal. Like a lot of Americans losing their jobs. Not to worry. The law proposed prevents class action suits against the government for such losses. In other words Congress expects this to blow up in their faces.
Be very careful what you ask for. The Devil may give it to you.
BTW sorry if this is OT. Please put it in the appropriate thread.
Thanks Lashawn for your response I think I have a better understanding now of where you are coming from. I too believe that the challenges facing black Americans today are less about whites than about ourselves and our own transformation. I appreciate that you keep critiquing the culture of victimhood that disempowers many black folks while it enriches those who manipulate race for self ends. It’s refreshing to hear a voice taking on the rigidity of racial identity orthodoxy. Where we may differ is that as a mental health professional who happens to be black, I see everyday the very real impact of internalized racism on black families and individuals. While the social structures of racism in our society have clearly changed a great deal, the psychological impact for some people has been passed down from one generation to the next. It seems to me that any conversation of about improving the lives of black people has to include some recognition of the need for healing as well as personal responsibility and moral commitment.
As you exemplify, there are diverse ways of analyzing the situation that black folk find themselves in today so I don’t suggest that my view is right or better than yours. I just wanted to contribute to the dialogue. Thanks Lashawn.
Well dang it La Shawn, you went and did it again!
Keep making sense like this and you may end up being drafted for an elected office…:lol:
Good stuff lady, very good stuff!
I’d imagine it’s distressing to see so much racial nationalism (as opposed to simply racial concerns or racial pride) in the black community. No country or empire has ever been based primarily on racial nationalism except Nazi Germany. My theory, and it could be an insane one but hear me out, is that black American soldiers in World War II such as the ones who fought under the great General Patton basically agreed with Patton’s view the majority of the German army was far from the beasts of Allied propaganda and were noble enemies who happened to be fighting for a handful of evil leaders, more respectful and honorable than the so-called allies of the Red Army. And after black soldiers returned home to face shameful treatment, some of the angrier black Americans remembered their parents’ admiration for the German army and unconsciously they began to adopt the same kind of hate-filled racial nationalism espoused by the evil leaders their awe-inspiring enemies fought for.
But, to Sheryl R. The idea that there are no races is not science, it’s Marxist pseudo-science that’s probably just as responsible for the current state of black America as the attiudes rightly decried by LaShawn Barber. No race is mentally or physically superior, not overall, but each one generally has different strengths and weaknesses. Denial of that is one of the main things that’s destroying America.
You wrote:
“We can no more ignore these differences than we could a mack truck barreling down the street as we go to cross it. What I advocate is colorblind government policy, which is definitely do-able”
How would one create this do-able colorblind government policy? How will I as a black woman live in this “tension”?
La Shawn, you asked Kman for concrete examples of racism-if you don’t mind, I can share two from my own experience. I had a friend who managed an apartment complex. She told me that she would naturally make the requirements ‘tougher’ for blacks when they tried to rent.
Also, in the heart of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula a man once told me proudly that his town had never had a black person stay overnight. To me, that’s hardly as impressive as the world’s largest ‘cow flap’ or ball of twine.
You always prove that it’s about principle, not race-based groupthink. I love that about you, LSB.
I am not a Christian. If there was a deity, the distance between that deity and humanity would be much broader than the differences between different members of our common humanity.
We don’t know the future. Because of that we don’t know which traits will support our common survival in the future. Diversity is a survival strategy that works.
Black, white? Who knows. I have three children that are white, and two who are black. Just as M. Albright found out that she was “Jewish” and Hillary found out that she was part “Black”, we all have things inside of us that we know not. The most important thing is our character, and that we can not hide.
I will add you to my weekly reads. You deserve it, and I would be impoverished if I missed your blog again.
People are good, bad, smart, dumb, nice, mean, and many more qualities, many at the same time. I have never found any human color coding that makes this easier to figure out. People who do think that there is such a color coding are fools, and should be dealt with as such.
There is much less variation with the various ‘races’ of human than there is between breeds of dog.
““Blaming racism is a copout, an admission of inferiority, an easy excuse of the sedated. Cosby wants to help black people realize that in America – even though the country isn’t perfect – the solution to any problem begins with the person with the problem.â€
Isn’t that simply “blaming the victimâ€?”
Kman,
I don’t see how you can possibly say this. Let’s take, for example, the recent stories in the news regarding the stripper who was allegedly raped by the Lacrosse team members at Duke University. If the allegations are true, I have no sympathy for the perpetrators and truly hope they get whatever punishment is due them as required by law. At the same time, I would feel some sympathy for the stripper because she did not deserve to be raped simply because of her profession or for the fact that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The rape itself is not her fault. Any position other than that is “blaming the victim.”
On the other hand, she has control over the situations she puts herself in. If she learns anything from this, perhaps it will be that working for easy money as a stripper poses certain risks that may be unacceptable to her. She is the only one who can determine if these risks are acceptable or not, and she is the only person who can make the decision to change her lifestyle in order to reduce those risks.
By pointing out the fact that she is the only one capable of making that decision and taking control of her life, how is that “blaming the victim?” Now, take that same lesson and apply it to any number of people who are calling themselves “victims” when they are only being held back by their own unwillingness to do anything constructive about their current situation.
I wish more people felt strong enough to declare their independence like you apparently have, LaShawn. You appear young, and may not have heard or believe, but for a short slither of time, sometime around 1962, things were coming together quickly. People were, truly accepted for their intelligence, education and personalities. A person’s skin color meant little. It was a great time. Then came the NAACP to claim their role as ‘rescuer’! They closed down neighborhood schools and bussed people hours from their homes. Forty years later, the failed experiment was admitted and we are basically back to square one. I hope the panderers stay out of it this time.
I’m sending this comment to your boss at Procter and Gamble to see if he/she shares your views. Let me know!
– Admin
Question for LaShawn
Do you feel that black people tend to be genetically inclined to be intellectually inferior to whites?
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