On Sep 19, I posted “Race – Part II – Appreciate How Far We have come”. In it, I provided a brief history of two SCOTUS cases a single century ago that unanimously ruled that for any immigrant to become a citizen, they must be seen as being white/Caucasian by Americans.
Based on the science of the day (phrenology, eugenics and Darwinism), whites were considered to be the superior race and other races inferior with blacks at the very bottom. And so the highest court in America reflected that commonly held belief and affirmed it as the law of the land.
Twenty -five years later after going through the Great Depression and World War II, America was undergoing huge structural changes as we switched from a nation fully at war to peacetime. Over ten million men and women who had been serving in the military had to be brought home where they would need to be gainfully employed, housed etc. Over one million African Americans served in WW II.
In WW II, The US military was forced to go to great lengths to segregate blacks from the regular units. There were all black units such as the Tuskegee Airmen and the 92nd Infantry Division. The squadron commander of the Tuskegee Airmen, Lt Col Benjamin Davis, was the 4th black graduate of West Point. So the Army did allow a few black officers early on. Not the Navy nor Marine Corps. Initially, the Navy restricted blacks to menial positions such as cooks, servants and stevedores. The Navy’s first black officer was not commissioned until 1944. The Marine Corps did everything it could to keep blacks out. It refused to allow blacks to train at Camp Lejeune and set up a separate and very inferior training camp at Montford Point for blacks. It refused to allow them to integrate into combat units. The expressed policy of the Corps in WWII was that no black Marine, regardless of his rank, out ranked a white Marine. Even so, black Marines found themselves in the thick of combat at Iwo Jima and many fought bravely and were wounded or killed. This is a link to some little known history worth knowing: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/…/the-few-the-proud…/
To help the GI’s assimilate back into the peacetime society, Congress passed the GI bill which provided for college education and set up the FHA loan program to make home ownership more available for veterans. That is, unless they were black. Senators from the South refused to pass the legislation if black veterans received the same benefits as whites. Why did they insist on this? Because that was the perspective of their electorate.
The South had been Solid Democrat ever since the Civil War. When Democrat President Harry Truman mandated the integration of the Armed Forces in 1948, it put a deep chink in the Democrat Party’s armor. Twenty Years later when Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act ending Jim Crow, he predicted that Southern States would be so incensed about giving blacks equal rights that they would bolt in mass to the Republican Party. LBJ was spot on.
In the election of 2016, all 11 states in the SEC voted for Donald Trump/Republican Party. In 2020, only Georgia, and by a very thin margin, voted for a Democrat. So Trump/GOP won 95% of the SEC electoral votes.
Most Relevant Comments
Coleman Brown my candidate for two years was Ben Carson. My best teacher was Julian White at Lsu Both black. Both never wanted anything for being black
Paul Peters Shared from Bob Kirby’s post last week— ———-Morgan Freeman said it best to Mike Wallace when referring to Black History Month “Freeman elaborated: Black history is American History, and so shouldn’t be delegated to a single month where we pay attention to it. Wallace pushed back: how’re we supposed to end racism without it? Freeman responded, “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.”
Coleman Brown and Paul Peters,
Unfortunately Coleman, they were the exception, not the rule because they never wanted anything for “being black.” From my life experiences, it seems that most blacks not only want something but EXPECT something extra just for “being black.” And they get it; they know how to play that game. Democrats like to talk of the Big Lie (the 2020 election steal). But nobody wants to talk about the BIGGEST LIE that has been perpetuated for at least 50+ years. That lie is the U.S. government telling black folks, “because you’re black, you cannot succeed without our help.” Of course, this has been proven to be a lie by so many black folks in America that have risen-up and decided they could be just as successful as anyone else without the government’s help. The downside is that many, many more have not done so. As long as the black folks continue to allow themselves to believe this BIGGEST LIE, and know they can get something for simply “being black”, nothing will change. I see black people living in poverty almost in walking distance of plenty job opportunities (if they wanted to work), and think “there is no reason for them to be living this way.”
Morgan Freeman had it right. We should all long for the day when a person is no longer referred to as that “black” man, or that “black” family. Instead, how about just saying that “man” or that “woman” with no reference to color? Well, that is not going to happen in our lifetime, and I predict for many lifetimes after ours. Why? Because in this country there are too many groups and individuals “on the take”, having some incentive to keep the flames of racism burning. For example, if we no longer had racism tomorrow the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton types of the U.S. would be out of business. As much as they declare anti-racism sentiment for the TV cameras, it is a guarantee that these types of individuals do not want to see an end to racism. The moment that black U.S. citizens – as a whole declare they can be successful without government assistance — and do so, all the government “freebies” may stop – not going to happen.
Furthermore, anyone who continues to hunger for a “discussion” of racism in America is shamelessly fanning the flames of it. The more you bring it up, keeping it in people’s face, and keep it in the forefront, the worse racism will be. Even more shameful are those who want to convince others that because of “past” racism America is a terrible place. Regardless of what these race-mongers say, the past does not equal the present and future. If America is such a terrible place, why aren’t they at our southern border telling all the illegal immigrants about the awful place they’re coming to? Because they know it’s a BIG LIE.
Dennis Leger This is an excellent post and I greatly appreciate you taking the time to write it. Your perspective one that is held by a lot of people, but most are not willing to let others know what they believe/how they feel.
There are some things you have said here that I fully agree with. Our welfare system, which has helped a lot of people, has also caused a considerable amount of harm. It has undermined many people’s willingness to go out and be gainfully employed. When all the stimulus checks were sent out during Covid, it made it very difficult for my company to keep competent staff to manage and maintain my apartment complexes. People could make almost as much not working as working.
But marginal or failed welfare programs that perhaps disproportionally gives more benefits to blacks is not what this discussion is about. The question I am focused on is what the best way is to move our society forward to where color of skin is no longer a big deal. We have made huge progress since the days when black skin mandated one being born into slavery. But we are not where we need to be. Based on the very real grievances expressed by BLM and other such organizations, there is still a significant disparity, based on skin color, within law enforcement and the criminal justice system. How do we close this gap? In this series, I am treating this as a binary choice: we talk about or we don’t.
I have learned a great deal that I did not know in the past two years about our nation’s history as it relates to slavery, race, Jim Crow and caste. I believe that such knowledge is very helpful in understanding why we are still struggling with the issue of race and what we may can do to improve things going forward. In human relations, just knowing someone else’s story can go a long way to solving relational problems. I think that is the main point that Ken Burns is making.
David Treppendahl, First, thanks for the compliment, which I hold in high regard coming from you. Despite bringing out some good points, I may have missed your focus a little. I will make another attempt.
I consider the concept of being born into slavery (and others not) as the cause for racism is more an “excuse”; not a “reason.” The reason I see it this way is because when I ask myself the question: How much of an impact does past slavery of one’s ancestor have on them today? The answer is always the same: Little-to-none, unless by choice. Perhaps it is a “mentality” handed down from generation-to-generation, more so than it is due to real-life experiences. This rationale is based on the fact that anyone today to even have any personal knowledge (personally knew) a slave would have to be 90-100 years old (estimate); and that acquaintance would have probably been before they were five years old. All that person’s descendants only know of slavery from history books, just like you and me. Even if by chance that a few family stories got passed down regarding their enslaved ancestor, they are so far removed from the situation, it should not be necessary for that to dictate their lives. “SLAVERY” has always been used as a crutch to add fuel to the flames of racism in the U.S. And if my theory put forth on “choice” is correct, how do we reconcile the many black U.S. citizens whose ancestors came from that same background of slavery, and who made a “choice” to not allow that “mentality” to become their identity and dictate their lives? My own ancestors experienced some pretty horrific atrocities at the hands of the British and others. While acknowledging it, I cannot allow it to dictate my life, like I have seen people in the older generations of my family do. So, I understand how that “mentality” can be passed down from generation-to-generation.
As far as disparity in law enforcement, yes there are a few bad apples in this arena, but not as many as mainstream media wants us to believe. That does not mean we should throw out the baby with the bath water. I do not believe that BLM’s approach – rioting, violence, looting, burning down and destroying property is conducive to correcting any injustice. However, the question always comes up for me: How many of these white cop/black person killings would not have occurred in the first place had the victim just complied with the officer’s commands, rather than having an attitude of “You’re not going to tell ME what to do white cop?” It seems like an attitude of defiance is encouraged by BLM. That’s not going to close the gap. Where is all the reporting on black cop/white person killings? It happens, but not reported on because it’s not newsworthy. Only a white cop/black person killing makes the news. This gives the false impression that ONLY white cop/black person killings are occurring – exactly what mainstream media wants to convey (to add fuel to the flames of racism).
Talk about it or don’t talk about it.
We’ve been talking about it for a very long time. Perhaps it’s time to try something different. Why is it necessary for the black community to constantly remind everyone that we’re different? Everywhere you look now there are titles of events, programs, and organizations that specify “Black This”, or “Black That.” Black Entertainment TV, Black Miss America, Black Lives Matter (only if a white cop kills a black, no other black life matters). This list could go on for pages and pages. Can you imagine the outcry of racism/discrimination if the white community did the same?
I cannot say that I have any good answers. Unfortunately, as long as we have people/human nature, some degree of racism will exist. Perhaps it would help if both whites and blacks not go the extra step to point out that we’re “different”; we’re ALL people “made in God’s image.” I do not subscribe to this false narrative that ONLY white people are racists, and it should be 100% up to whitie to fix the problem. Neither do I agree that tearing down statues, cancelling/shaming those you don’t agree with, and trying to re-write or cancel history is a proper solution to correcting racism in this country. Even if you don’t like what happened in the past, you cannot “undo” anything. Do these people really believe they can “erase” history?
Dennis Leger Another excellent post. Let me share with you something that really resonated with me on this issue. I raised a son who is now 34 years old. I never worried about him doing goofy things in public that would get him hurt or even killed by law enforcement. I never coached him on what to do if he got stopped or pulled over by police. He actually did arrested one time for burning a big cardboard box at a BREC Park. And he was pretty irked when the policeman, who was white, arrested him and his buddy and told him so. I have attached a poem by a man named Clint Smith. He was a black kid going to school at a predominately white school. My question to you is this: Why should the fathers of black boys in America have to go to so much greater effort to teach their sons how to not be harmed or killed than law enforcement than us white fathers? That is something that needs to be changed. I believe it requires further knowledge and enlightenment to bring about. And part of that will come from teaching well designed CRT classes (similar to what I have described in this series) in our schools
Return to links page: https://respectfulpointsandcounterpoints.com/links-to-discussion-on-understanding-progressives/