Column : By Bill Schoettler
Absolutely fascinating, this obsession with slavery. Listening to commercial television and radio and you hear multiple comments about slavery. It is as though slavery exists today as a current cultural and physical fact.
Slavery was outlawed in the United States almost two hundred years ago. Yet today people who were never slaves talk about it as though the condition exists in the United States of America at the present time.
What is interesting is that no living person has ever been enslaved in this country.
What does exist in this country are people who complain about what happened two hundred years ago. Nobody today will agree with what happened yesterday with regard to slavery. But then if you look to criticize yesterday’s history based on today’s cultural standards you would have to erase well over 50% of most things that happened anywhere in the world that happened more than 200 years ago.
Give some thought to what people two hundred years in the future will think about what we are doing today?
We should begin by first realizing that whatever it is that triggers an emotional response in an individual is strictly personal to that individual. “I am upset because….” —you fill in the blank. But what you put down isn’t necessarily what I am feeling, and vice-a-versa. I may be triggered by seeing something that recalls my personal past while you see something that reminds you of a recent event. What upsets you may not upset me just as what pleases me may not please you.
Yet we continue to read, and to hear that there are “universal triggers”, events or words or conditions that disturb large groups of people. An even casual analysis of such claims demonstrates that the makers of the claims are not quoting statistical studies but merely expressing personal opinions…as though the mere expression of such opinions makes them valid and duly appointed spokespersons for such groups.
White supremacy is a wonderful catchword that is meaningless to most people. It has been used to describe heretofore activities such as competing in sports, academic competition, virtually any non-physical form of competition or endeavor and even systems that were previously considered to be universally beneficial. When a non-white person argues against such appellations, the non-white person is described as the “face of white supremacy”.
How absurd can this get? It gets even better.
Organizations purporting to speak for “all persons of color” argue that concepts that glorify any white individual are “systemic racism” unless, of course, such glorified individual might be a person of color. Some might call such conduct constitutes racism, unless there are two competing definitions of “racism”.
Systemic racism is the appellation given to any conduct by either individuals or organizations (both private and governmental) that has a negative impact of any sort on “persons of color”. Ignored are well- published realities that obviously negate such appellations. The classical example are the statistics of black-on-black shootings/killings when compared to white-on-black shootings/killings. More whites are killed annually by white police officers than blacks killed by white police officers. Furthermore the largest number of blacks killed in this country, each year (see Chicago for dramatic statistics on this) are killed by other blacks. Yet when a black is shot by a white, it makes headlines along with claims of “systemic racism”. Logic is abandoned in such cases.
Most non-whites, as well as most whites are willing to follow the fundamental concepts of working for a living, dealing with the daily challenges of providing for their families, educating their children, planning for their sunset years and maintaining as comfortable a lifestyle as they can afford. Yes, most people can also tell you how:
- a) the country could be better run,
- b) how their City could be better administered, even,
- c) how their own lives could be improved by winning the lottery.
It is generally acknowledged that all three options are somewhat unrealistic.
The reality is that most of us have opinions that we are happy to share with any willing audience. But these are personal opinions, worth exactly whatever another is willing to pay to hear. To take an expression of a personal opinion as a factual statement is as absurd as believing in the tooth fairy. The story might sound attractive, but the concept is ridiculous.
Dwelling in the past, bemoaning a history that cannot be changed, and using history as an excuse for neglecting fundamental social survival skills such as getting an education, working for a living, and adhering to fundamental principles of such prosaic but essential concepts as embodied in the Ten Commandments…IS. NOT RACIST.
Common sense and a realistic approach to daily life IS NOT RACIST.
Obeying the laws of the elected government and respecting the rights of others and following the classical Golden Rule IS NOT RACIST.
Those who claim that following precepts of common decency and believing in human integrity are racist are those whose concepts of reality are significantly skewed in the wrong direction. Get over it. Live with the realities of today and recognize that others have the same rights as you. If your refuge from reality lies in the concept that you are a victim, then that is the choice you are making…to be a victim.
Refuse victimhood and claim for yourself whatever you are able to claim based on your own willingness to perform and produce and live as you wish to live.
The choice is really yours.
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If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.Plato
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We sat by while the real Racists, (Dixiecrats, Carpetbaggers, KKK Klansman like the late Democratic Senator Byrd) used their charms, along with our tax dollars to convince the same people they denied Equal Rights to for over 150 years.
Tyrants know that before you can enslave the masses that you must control their information. If you start when they are young, they will do your job for you as they grow older. First, you fill their schools with incompetent teachers (via corrupt big-city school systems and unions that drive the good teachers away). These kids graduate stupid so when they can’t get a job the Dems point to the mostly white suburbia and convince them that we are to blame for their misery.
Naturally this was written from the perspective of someone who is annoyed by the inconvenience of being blamed. Daily life is not racist for some. Statically the system is a racist system. This country HISTORICALLY was founded and sustained by racial exploitation and warfare. It’s our history for crying out loud. My issue with America is it’s ashamed of itself but proud of it’s self at the same time. Why does ths country struggle to admit itself? During slavery, America DID NOT consider itself racist either. During Jim Crow they didn’t consider themselves racists either. Stop trying to rewrite history and present because you don’t like that you aren’t the hero. America is what it is. Built on the backs of slaves. Literally. Why are debating facts? Get outta ya feelings
The concept of ‘racism’ was invented by the left to agitate. Pure and simple. If you had historical perspective beyond 200 years you would recognize this. There is not a racial group on this Earth which has not be oppressed by SOMEONE at SOMETIME.
Papa: ‘built on the backs of slaves.’ give it a break! That was at best only partially true before 1865.
Papa Jaighh – time to move on and work together. We have a common enemy.