Thursday, May 10, 2012

Black and White



By Tom Kando

Patrick Buchanan’s famous/notorious statement about  “The White Side of the Story of Negroes” is a couple of years old, but it is being discussed (and supported, I am afraid) on the Internet a great deal at this time.

I don’t want to rehash too many details of this screed, except to say that we see frequent statements like this, coming from various “white men’s rights” groups, organizations like  the KKK, the John Birch Society, etc.


Here are some highlights of Buchanan’s ugly and racist piece, titled “Buchanan to Obama”:
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it needs to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.... The Silent Majority needs to have its... grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
 America has been the best country on earth for black folks....(They)....reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

No people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare....(and on) poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action....

 (Institutions and) individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

 ....Where is the gratitude?
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence....Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse?....Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago....

Ugly and racist, indeed. Is a refutation even necessary? 

Notice the disgusting, patronizing attitude: America, which Buchanan considers to be a white country, deigns to lift up the blacks, who then must show gratitude and humility!

Yes, half of the 2.5 million US prison population is black. And yes, this is a racist scandal.  Of course, the lower classes always commit a disproportionate number of street crimes. This has nothing to do with skin color. If you hold income constant, the difference between the black and white crime rates evaporates.

It is well known that per capita black income  hovers at 50% of average white income, and sadly, this is not improving. The figure was actually closer to 60% in the 1960s. Bad enough.

But here is a much more mind-boggling statistic: Average black net worth is about 10% of white per capita net worth! Pause for a moment to digest this unbelievable fact! The average white American is ten times richer than the average black American! I have never understood why this grotesque disparity doesn’t create more revolutionary consciousness among blacks.

And it’s all black folks’ fault, says Buchanan (“a failure of the black community itself”).

This is pure and simple Social Darwinism, or the term -  coined by  sociologists - “blaming the victim.”

But why do we even continue to categorize by race?  Well, we have to, as long as America remains largely a caste society. As long as 90% of marriages and relationships remain intra-racial.

Racists like Buchanan will never understand that dysfunctionality has everything to do with social class and nothing to do with race.
Are African-Americans  still 2nd class citizens in the US? That is  as clear as black and white. leave comment here