Trump’s victory is unsurprising in racist America
December 5, 2016
People of color, particularly Black Americans, shouldn’t be surprised in the least by Donald Trump’s presidential victory. Although part of me feels like we shouldn’t be acting like we haven’t already survived, despite vicious attempts to destroy us, I can understand the shock. It’s the same thing as saying no matter how much one can prepare for death, you’re never really ready. We’ve been preparing for different forms of death for hundreds of years. And yet, here we are in fear, though our fears have morphed into realities time and time again through Jim Crow, lynchings, police brutality (which has been elevated into its own version of lynching), and discriminatory administrations and courts.
The most frustrating part of it all is that the toughest blows against us have often been from people who were holding our hands, claiming allegiance, while snickering over their shoulders with racist America. This is exactly what Bill Clinton did when he played saxophone on a 1992 episode of “The Arsenio Hall Show,” and in another engagement, gave a speech on how we Blacks were so right to think the criminal justice system is quite unjust, citing, what I call, the one-in-three. (A 2003 “special report” done by the Bureau of Justice says one-in-three Black men will experience jail in their lifetime, and within the past decade, the numbers haven’t changed. This was all another Washington “discovery” that Black folks figured out when our men got 10-year bids in penitentiaries for dealing with that barbaric crack when the civilized did powder.) And not long after he was elected, Clinton signed his notorious crime bill, increasing policing, granting state prisons with an amount of money Washington can never find for urban public schools, and finalizing the three-strikes-and-done deal which incarcerated some three-time offenders for life.
My grandmother just said over Thanksgiving that Clinton’s administration increased jobs for Black people. Yes, partially because many of us young Black women then weren’t competing with our imprisoned husbands and brothers. And I imagine, as a single Black woman and daughter of a single mother whose partner was incarcerated for several years, many lives of single Black women (especially those with children) in the 1990s were made that much more complicated due to many of our men’s absences. (Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow” explains all this in more sophisticated detail.) And guess who called himself the “drug czar” back in 2014, crediting himself for uplifting Crime Bill’s policies? It was none other than our dear old Vice President, Joe Biden. Phew, Barack Obama just barely grazed it. And no, Joe isn’t getting my vote if he runs in 2020.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was another beloved president, but his 1935 Social Security Act excluded domestic workers (maids: Black women) and agricultural laborers (40 percent of Black men). He also opted not to pass an anti-lynching bill. Yes, all the dead Black bodies hanging from trees in our grandparents’ day and the bodies bleeding onto the streets in our day (most recently, former National Football League player Joe McKnight) could’ve been outlawed. But Franklin D. Roosevelt said no, because he was afraid of sabotaging his own political standing. You’ve just got to sell those n—— when it comes to protecting your votes, you know?
But all jokes aside, Washington has been two-timing Black Americans since we got here (in chains). And from what it looks like, we wouldn’t have seen any better change with Hillary Clinton than we’re about to see with Trump. Hillary was so gung-ho for Bill’s strategy that she was collecting money because of all our men her husband stacked in jails like sardines until October of last year. In comparison, Eleanor Roosevelt was apparently in favor of not killing Black people for no reason. (Why, thank you, Eleanor—of course, only if the rumor is true.)
Ultimately, I’m actually glad Trump won. Yup, I said it. I’m also someone who’s tired of Washington’s lies. Now we can’t excuse anybody. We undoubtedly know where we stand in America’s priorities. And perhaps this will be the spark that gets Black people angry enough to not allow politicians to take advantage of our vulnerability in the future (of course, if we have a future). If the apocalypse arrives, and we go first, at least we can say we weren’t surprised.
Elisheva Azarael is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at [email protected]
David Hunt 1990 • Dec 9, 2016 at 12:11 pm
Is there racism in America? Yes. And for the most part, it comes from the minorities themselves, and from the Left who tolerate – from minorities – statements that would be 100% unacceptable coming from whites. Thus, the “bigotry of low expectations” comes to the fore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__IpYgvAPhI
David Hunt 1990 • Dec 6, 2016 at 2:13 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wz_0utCrm0
elizabeth • Dec 5, 2016 at 3:12 pm
Great article; yes, Trump’s win is unsurprising in a “racist” america. I hope the author knows accusations of “racism” and being “racist” have lost all their credibility; it’s actually a key reason Trump won.
American people were tired of being called “racists”, accused of “racism”, accused of “unconscious bias”,etc. False accusations make the party who makes them lose credibility and if true racism ever emerges, as it’s starting to due to the intolerance and division bred by the president and the far left; then nobody will take it seriously.
It will be like the story of the boy who cried wolf.
Mike Constitution • Dec 5, 2016 at 1:33 pm
Here is an example of why the American people rejected the status quo.
Chicago, Democrat-run for decades:
Total Shot: 4133
Shot & Wounded: 3467
Shot & Killed: 666
Total Homicides: 743
78% Black, 17% Hispanic, 5% White
104% increase over 2015
Police involved shootings – 25
We see police being slandered as racist oppressors by Obama, Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, and all the other usual Democrat/leftist suspects, such as the author of this article.
The reality is the police are often the only force for good in these Democrat-run, inner-city, slaughterhouses.
The reality is violent crimes are committed disproportionately by minorities and the huge increase in violent crime occurring across the nation is happening because the police are being slandered, attacked, and, therefore, suppressed for simply trying to do a very difficult job.
The reality is the Democrat/leftists enable and perpetuate this tragedy because they believe the dependence, division, death, and despair brings them votes.
The numbers in this election bear this out considering that even though 78% of the victims (and assailants) in Chicago are Black, they still voted overwhelmingly for Clinton and the status quo because they don’t see an alternative.
The reality is, we reject the racism of the Democrat/leftist cabal that is content to trap generations of minorities in a cycle of poverty just to keep them as a reliable voting bloc.
The reality is we believe all Americans, even inner-city Blacks, deserve an opportunity to succeed and, unlike their racist Democrat/leftist oppressors, like the author of this article, we know they actually can.
David Hunt 1990 • Dec 5, 2016 at 1:02 pm
@Arafat and Joe:
Excellent posts. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what’s TRUE, it’s what useful idiots like this BELIEVE is true because they’ve been marinated in it since their birth.
Trump won because tens of millions of people, who are NOT racists and couldn’t care less, have been hectored and harassed endlessly and accused of racism, or “unconscious bias” or “privilege”. All to keep the money flowing into Democrat coffers by the perpetually aggrieved.
The Booker T. Washington quote comes to mind:
“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”
It’s not just fellow colored people that keep blacks on the plantation these days… it’s Democrats in general. In exchange for pellets and a cage, er, EBT cards and subsidized housing, blacks pull the lever and vote for Democrats reflexively. A once proud people reduced to the status of lab rats… and it was done to you by Democrats.
JonV • Dec 5, 2016 at 12:45 pm
I’m curious, which of Trump’s stated policy goals is going to cause harm to AA communities? Fighting illegal immigration (more jobs for AAs)? vouchers for educating AA kids in failing inner city schools? Tougher policing (making AA neighborhoods safer)?
What have the dems (who by and large politically control most AA districts) promised – other than more of the same (crumbs for votes)?
Hinckleybuzzard • Dec 5, 2016 at 12:35 pm
The writer has seen through the Democratic scam, and seems smart enough to have paid attention to Trump’s challenge to African Americans: Vote for me, what have you got to lose? I have yet to hear or see any indication that a President Trump will have bad intentions toward Black people. Maybe she will continue to think for herself and keep an open mind.
Todd Elliott Koger • Dec 5, 2016 at 11:40 am
The November 28, 2016, Chicago Sun-Times, Fran Spielman article: “Black Politicians Unite After Murder of Congressman’s Grandson” outlined specifically the exact plan that Todd Elliott Koger has shared with the Congressional black leadership, the “Movement for Blacklivesmatter,” Rev. Jesse Jackson, private foundations, and the like. In fact, Mr. Koger had already complained that the Urban League also usurped this proposal.
None of the black leadership named in the Chicago Sun-Times article had previously demonstrated any interest for the suggestion until apparently “word got out that Mr. Koger also shared the Plan with Donald Trump.” That is, the black leadership named in the Chicago Sun-Times’ article has always taken direct issue with Mr. Trump arguing that “BLACKS ARE NOT LIVING IN THE PRECARIOUS SITUATION OUTLINED.” Donald Trump was the only one willing to listen to Mr. Koger (blacks have been voting almost 50 years “straight” Democrat and our situation remained the same or worst).
First Mr. Trump issued an online video that addressed our plight. Next he went to Michigan and then took the message to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thereafter, Mr. Koger packaged the visual optics and shared Mr. Trump’s fight against the “status quo” with black America to grow an arsenal of black Trump supporters.
When “sh*t hit the fan” in October 2016 and everyone started to run from Mr. Trump . . . Mr. Koger suggested the need for a new “writing” for black America to put things back on track. Thereafter, Mr. Trump almost immediately issued a “New Deal For Black America.”
Donald Trump owes his victory to “predominately black Democratic strongholds of Pennsylvania” who were convinced to give Mr. Trump more votes than the previous Republican Party presidential candidate. African Americans like Todd Elliott Koger convinced hundreds of thousands blacks in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and various other states to boycott the vote and/or the traditional “straight” Democratic Party vote.
Mr. Trump’s “margin of victory” is realized when you combine this with an increase of “Obama white voters” in Wisconsin and Michigan voting Trump in 2016. Trump won Pennsylvania by 1.1 percentage points (68,236 votes), Wisconsin by 0.9 points (27,257 votes), and Michigan by 0.2 points (11,837 votes). If Hillary Clinton had won all three states, she would have won the Electoral College 278 to 260. She fell short in all three.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dieNd5h_qpw
B Wider • Dec 5, 2016 at 11:32 am
Princess pandering to minorities doesn’t mean anybody gives a rat’s ass about you. Under Obozo the murder of African Americans by African Americans continues unabated, unemployment for African Americans doubled and the victomhood bs has now infected the psyche of people like yourself. You don’t know much about anything, have done nothing, and frankly nobody gives a crap about what you have to say…..Mr. “Racist Trump” just selected 3 women, all minorities for key administrative positions, a Nigerian and Ben Caron an African American for key leadership going forward…..Now go play in traffic or run to your safe space.
Eric Leidberg • Dec 5, 2016 at 11:19 am
“If the apocalypse arrives, and we go first, at least we can say we weren’t surprised.”
If you are truly scared of “go first”, I suggest you take advantage of the Second Amendment.
It doesn’t care what color you are.
But this being Massachusetts, there are quite a few hoops and expenditures that need to be taken care of first.
If you can pass the background check.
Stanley • Dec 5, 2016 at 10:56 am
How sad it is to wake up and the first thing I see featured on the conservative, yes, conservative news aggregator I like to follow such an opinion piece with so little grounding in reality recommended for reading. I find it so sad that in the last eight years under the administration of a half-black president who has rejected half of his heritage because of his radical ideology race relations have suffered such a setback as hatred such as this has become du jour. but the thing I do wonder is if Ms. Azarael is even old enough to have lived under the real thing.
I am. I am Native American/White mix and can document my heritage, though, I do look the part as I’ve found out when I’ve frequented gatherings of the Cherokee, just one of the three tribes from which I descend. I was born and lived my early years in the Old South when real racism reigned and even Young mixed-breeds like myself learned early in life to be careful what they did and said around whites. That’s one of the dirty little secrets black activists in college and elsewhere don’t like people talking about, that other races lived through that fear ladden reality as well. We knew what it was like to be excluded from restaurants, motels, and other white only areas if our skin was just a little too dark, as my family’s was. We may have had some access to areas whites lived in as token “Indians” like some sort of badge of honor but, again, we were often excluded otherwise. We were even forbidden to associate with our fellow oppressed of other races. Yes, dad was approached by the KKK and ordered to back-off on some friendships he’d made in the Black community since their too few of our own in the area we lived he could find. But, then, please excuse me for articulating some reality from the past with somebody spouting the minority studies myth of the special ways blacks were treated back then.
Dad eventually got tired of it and moved us up to the North, where he was from. There was racism up there as well. However, it didn’t rise to the level as in the South where those of color feared the knock on the door in the middle of the night and the men in white robes. And we watched as our nation underwent a wonderful change as those old attitudes fell by the wayside and most shed the old hatreds and attitudes. Now I live back there in the South I was born in, just 100 miles from where I was born and in an area considered rural and it is a different world now. Oh, not all racists are gone, some, and I mean some of the really old ones still have it. The difference is, though, that I can tell them to roll their tongues up and sit on them without fear of the bull whip in the night or worse. The author of this piece obviously has no idea how wonderful and thrilling that is!.
But then how can she given she is among those who deny the reality of change for the better in this country. It saddens me to see entire “academic disciplines” devoted to the faux assumption that instead of changing it just went underground and whites, including mixed breeds like myself, are all still guilty of racism just by virtue of the racial make up they happened to be born with! So they go around looking for ways to take offence at the new “others” and invent new way to be racist such as “micro-aggressions,” “cultural approbation,” and God only knows what else. They pour over every statement or written word of public figures who are white looking for anything they can twist to make men like Donald Trump, who was ahead of many in eliminating racism in his hotels and golf clubs, for something to say “Aha! Gotchta!” in their pursuit of non existent racism on the part of a man whose daughter is married to a Jew! Then they send out hater imbued armies of so called “social Justice warriors” two tear up our campuses and cities in an infantile fit of rage because their favor politically correct candidate didn’t win.
They also write hateful pieces such as this urging those poor, misled, souls on to stir up racial strife and solve consciences with faux reasoning such as declaring it impossible for people of color to be racist of all things. Really, Ms. Azarael, you and those like you should be ashamed of yourselves and it disgusts me to see people who claim they are intellectuals in any sense openly spew such poisoned sophism in a publication such as this. I would suggest that you get off your the branch you are sawing off and tackle issues of genuine racism such as in Tibet, which under Chinese occupation has an oppressed racial population who are being displaced from their land and in many cases killed while the Chinese government seeks to destroy their religion and culture just as the Whites did to half of my people.
Please, transform yourself from this bitter and destructive attitude to one of positive change, change for the better. Please, retool whatever minority studies department you are part of into one which teaches the methods Gandhi and Martin Luther King used to achieve such wonderful changes as they did instead of Marx, whose followers managed to kill more people in the last century than Christendom managed to in eighteen centuries. Try to bring those of all races together instead of splitting them apart with identity politics which is nothing more than one of the many pathways to suffering and sorrow. Please teach your students to be a force for positive change in this world instead of nursing the resentments from the past. That, is the enlightened path. That is the path towards a society which has shed all racism and other “-isms.”
Zeke Rivers • Dec 5, 2016 at 10:54 am
You mention one factoid from the 2003 Bureau of Justice report, but neglected this one:
During the 20 years studied, young black men were responsible for nearly 40 percent of the homicides in the United States.
Cherry-picking your stats to support your argument generally doesn’t work in real life.
HowMuchIsEnough • Dec 5, 2016 at 10:39 am
Sure, sure…. it’s always whitey’s fault.
Whitey makes young, black males commit violent crimes at a rate higher than all other races combined. It’s probably those white women driving them insane with lust… yeah, that’s probably it.
If you’re getting such a horrid deal in the US, then — PLEASE — trade your US citizenship to the government for a plane ticket home and 100 acres in Liberia.
Bruce Hodge • Dec 5, 2016 at 10:29 am
There is not much more to add to Joe McGivern’s comments above.
Except to note that the Democrat Party, for many years, has gradually converted its Southern business model of actual Plantation-based slavery to a virtual slavery of dependence, where intentionally poorly educated and deliberately un-acculturated Blacks, are, with malice, concentrated in large inner city, “ghettoized” vote Plantations.
There has been, for many years, a Trillion Dollar “war on poverty”, with no real progress, and a claim to someday improve education, etc., which never improve. Why such failure?
Intentionally created dependence on Government largess, a narcotic, lack of education and real opportunity destroys the soul, creates a sense of victim-hood, anger (to be further exploited), and hopelessness.
The answer to the above is obvious. Mr. Azarael is simply “going around in circles”, neurotically continuing his intellectual stupor, as it intended to be.
Jane • Dec 5, 2016 at 10:28 am
It is tragic that with all your so called education all you can spout is the line of the alt left. You are too young to even have been born while I was fighting on the front lines of the sixties civil rights movement.
Your victimhood is pathetic. The lens with which you see the world is guaranteed to leave you angry, bitter, and confused.
The hatred of a free society and economic freedom rings solidly throughout your statements of class and race warfare. The communists are happy. You on the other hand are trapped and always will be
Tom • Dec 5, 2016 at 10:04 am
Racism= a cheap excuse for not getting everything you want and being to lazy to think for yourself.
You also have to love the hypocrisy on left wingers; “Franklin D. Roosevelt was another beloved president”. FDR; the same liberal icon who dragged tens of thousands of Japanese Americans from their homes then placed them in internment camps while also starting registries for Italians and Germans living legally in the United Stated….now President-elect Donald Trump wants to enforce immigration laws but thats xenophobic and racist…
Mike Constitution • Dec 5, 2016 at 9:58 am
The United States of America is one of the least racist countries on the planet.
Of the 42 million Black Americans, about 18 million work and they produce a GDP of about $1.5 trillion.
To compare, sub-Saharan Africa has a population of about 900 million and the combined GDP of all the countries there is near that same $1.5 trillion.
Can you imagine how well American Blacks could do if they moved beyond the racialism and victimization so evident in this article?
Dude • Dec 5, 2016 at 9:57 am
This is why the Democrat Party loses – calling people names and not providing policies to help people doesn’t win elections.
Joe McGivern • Dec 5, 2016 at 9:36 am
Fact: The Republican Party was founded primarily to oppose slavery, and Republicans eventually abolished slavery. The Democratic Party fought them and tried to maintain and expand slavery. The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, passed in 1865 with 100% Republican support but only 23% Democrat support in congress.
Why is this indisputable fact so rarely mentioned? PBS documentaries about slavery and the Civil War barely mention it, for example. One can certainly argue that the parties have changed in 150 years (more about that below), but that does not change the historical fact that it was the Democrats who supported slavery and the Republicans who opposed it. And that indisputable fact should not be airbrushed out for fear that it will tarnish the modern Democratic Party.
Had the positions of the parties been the opposite, and the Democrats had fought the Republicans to end slavery, the historical party roles would no doubt be repeated incessantly in these documentaries. Funny how that works.
Fact: During the Civil War era, the “Radical Republicans” were given that name because they wanted to not only end slavery but also to endow the freed slaves with full citizenship, equality, and rights.
Yes, that was indeed a radical idea at the time!
Fact: Lincoln’s Vice President, Andrew Johnson, was a strongly pro-Union (but also pro-slavery) Democrat who had been chosen by Lincoln as a compromise running mate to attract Democrats. After Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson thwarted Republican efforts in Congress to recognize the civil rights of the freed slaves, and Southern Democrats continued to thwart any such efforts for close to a century.
Fact: The 14th Amendment, giving full citizenship to freed slaves, passed in 1868 with 94% Republican support and 0% Democrat support in congress. The 15th Amendment, giving freed slaves the right to vote, passed in 1870 with 100% Republican support and 0% Democrat support in congress.
Regardless of what has happened since then, shouldn’t we be grateful to the Republicans for these Amendments to the Constitution? And shouldn’t we remember which party stood for freedom and which party fiercely opposed it?
Fact: The Ku Klux Klan was originally and primarily an arm of the Southern Democratic Party. Its mission was to terrorize freed slaves and “ni**er-loving” (their words) Republicans who sympathized with them.
Why is this fact conveniently omitted in so many popular histories and depictions of the KKK, including PBS documentaries? Had the KKK been founded by Republicans, that fact would no doubt be repeated constantly on those shows.
Fact: In the 1950s, President Eisenhower, a Republican, integrated the US military and promoted civil rights for minorities. Eisenhower pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1957. One of Eisenhower’s primary political opponents on civil rights prior to 1957 was none other than Lyndon Johnson, then the Democratic Senate Majority Leader. LBJ had voted the straight segregationist line until he changed his position and supported the 1957 Act.
Fact: The historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 was supported by a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in both houses of Congress. In the House, 80 percent of the Republicans and 63 percent of the Democrats voted in favor. In the Senate, 82 percent of the Republicans and 69 percent of the Democrats voted for it.
Fact: Contrary to popular misconception, the parties never “switched” on racism. The Democrats just switched from overt racism to a subversive strategy of getting blacks as dependent as possible on government to secure their votes. At the same time, they began a cynical smear campaign to label anyone who opposes their devious strategy as greedy racists.
Following the epic civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the South began a major demographic shift from Democratic to Republican dominance. Many believe that this shift was motivated by racism. While it is certainly true that many Southern racists abandoned the Democratic Party over its new support for racial equality and integration, the notion that they would flock to the Republican Party — which was a century ahead of the Democrats on those issues — makes no sense whatsoever.
Yet virtually every liberal, when pressed on the matter, will inevitably claim that the parties “switched,” and most racist Democrats became Republicans! In their minds, this historical ju jitsu maneuver apparently transfers all the past sins of the Democrats (slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, etc.) onto the Republicans and all the past virtues of the Republicans (e.g., ending slavery) onto the Democrats! That’s quite a feat!
It is true that Barry Goldwater’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 probably attracted some racist Democrats to the Republican Party. However, Goldwater was not a racist — at least not an overt racist like so many Southern Democrats of the time, such as George Wallace and Bull Connor. He publicly professed racial equality, and his opposition to the 1964 Act was based on principled grounds of states rights. In any case, his libertarian views were out of step with the mainstream, and he lost the 1964 Presidential election to LBJ in a landslide.
But Goldwater’s opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act provided liberals an opening to tar the Republican Party as racist, and they have tenaciously repeated that label so often over the years that it is now the conventional wisdom among liberals. But it is really nothing more than an unsubstantiated myth — a convenient political lie. If the Republican Party was any more racist than the Democratic Party even in 1964, why did a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in both houses of Congress vote for the 1964 Civil Rights Act? The idea that Goldwater’s vote on the 1964 Civil Rights Act trumps a century of history of the Republican Party is ridiculous, to say the least.
Every political party has its racists, but the notion that Republicans are more racist than Democrats or any other party is based on nothing more than a constant drumbeat of unsubstantiated innuendo and assertions by Leftists, constantly echoed by the liberal media. It is a classic example of a Big Lie that becomes “true” simply by virtue of being repeated so many times.
A more likely explanation for the long-term shift from Democratic to Republican dominance in the South was the perception, fair or not, that the Democratic Party had rejected traditional Christian religious values and embraced radical secularism. That includes its hardline support for abortion, its rejection of prayer in public schools, its promotion of the gay agenda, and many other issues.
In the 1960s the Democratic Party changed its strategy for dealing with African Americans. Thanks to earlier Republican initiatives on civil rights, blatant racial oppression was no longer a viable political option. Whereas before that time Southern Democrats had overtly and proudly segregated and terrorized blacks, the national Democratic Party decided instead to be more subtle and get them as dependent on government as possible. As LBJ so elegantly put it (in a famous moment of candor that was recorded for posterity), “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” At the same time, the Democrats started a persistent campaign of lies and innuendo, falsely equating any opposition to their welfare state with racism.
From a purely cynical political perspective, the Democratic strategy of black dependence has been extremely effective. LBJ knew exactly what he was doing. African Americans routinely vote well over 90 percent Democratic for fear that Republicans will cut their government benefits and welfare programs. And what is the result? Before LBJ’s Great Society welfare programs, the black illegitimacy rate was as low as 23 percent, but now it has more than tripled to 72 percent.
Most major American city governments have been run by liberal Democrats for decades, and most of those cities have large black sections that are essentially dysfunctional anarchies. Cities like Detroit are overrun by gangs and drug dealers, with burned out homes on every block in some areas. The land values are so low due to crime, blight, and lack of economic opportunity that condemned homes are not even worth rebuilding. Who wants to build a home in an urban war zone? Yet they keep electing liberal Democrats — and blaming “racist” Republicans for their problems!
Washington DC is another city that has been dominated by liberal Democrats for decades. It spends more per capita on students than almost any other city in the world, yet it has some of the worst academic achievement anywhere and is a drug-infested hellhole. Barack Obama would not dream of sending his own precious daughters to the DC public schools, of course — but he assures us that those schools are good enough for everyone else. In fact, Obama was instrumental in killing a popular and effective school voucher program in DC, effectively killing hopes for many poor black families trapped in those dysfunctional public schools. His allegiance to the teachers unions apparently trumps his concern for poor black families.
A strong argument could also be made that Democratic support for perpetual affirmative action is racist. It is, after all, the antithesis of Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind society. Not only is it “reverse racism,” but it is based on the premise that African Americans are incapable of competing in the free market on a level playing field. In other words, it is based on the notion of white supremacy, albeit “benevolent” white supremacy rather than the openly hostile white supremacy of the pre-1960s Democratic Party.
The next time someone claims that Republicans are racist and Democrats are not, don’t fall for it.
Arafat • Dec 5, 2016 at 8:37 am
You truly are a victim. How you made it to UMass is a testament to what a remarkable young black woman you are, for as you clearly state in your opinion piece, most blacks do not get past Go.
Jews, on the other hand, are not like blacks. They are not victims. They were not forcibly kicked out of their homeland(s). They were not forcibly kicked out of all Muslim countries during the 1940s and 1950s. They did not experience the Inquisition and Pogroms. They did not have to overcome often unbearable odds to get past Go. Right…
And all this begs the question about where culture plays into this debate. Why is it Jews excel while blacks (as you point out) do not? It’s an interesting question and worth exploring for those serious about understanding this instead of copping-out and claiming victimhood instead.