How much longer must we wait for the scars of slavery and racial bigotry to heal?

2016-06-28T10:52:19-04:00

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/06/28/the-fraud-goes-on-n2183982?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Time heals all wounds, but how much time? As I read Dr. Sowell's essay on the unfairness of racial quotas, I couldn't help wondering. Yes, slavery ended 150 years ago. Racial bigotry, although it still exists, lost its legal power with the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Racial bigots are no longer welcome in polite society. Still, we're waiting for the wounds to heal. There was some scar tissue forming, but that has been ripped away in the past 7 years. When will We the People be All the People?

Thomas Sowell - The Fraud Goes On

Last week the Supreme Court of the United States voted that President Obama exceeded his authority when he granted exemptions from the immigration laws passed by Congress.

Response by SrA Edward Vong made Jun 28 at 2016 11:04 AM

2016-06-28T11:04:04-04:00

This is a very hard, but well thought out question with no specific answer. There is no question that racism and bigotry still exists, though that extreme should only exist in small numbers. I think at this point in time, we are combating ignorance.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2016 11:08 AM

2016-06-28T11:08:37-04:00

How much longer? Forever. We are a tribal lot and if you're not in our tribe are either an ally, a neutral or a threat. The ultimate fiction held by Unicornians is that racial bigotry is monopolized by white people of European ancestry. Yet Arabs hate Kurds (brown on brown); Hutu slaghtered the Tutsis (black on black); Serbs and Bosnians (white on white). On one hand, we are much better than we used to be but, we have the capacity to be much more efficient at being worse than we used to be.

Response by SPC Sheila Lewis made Jun 28 at 2016 11:08 AM

2016-06-28T11:08:53-04:00

The media continues to fan these flames and there should a moratorium imposed upon using the term "race" because they use it too much. Culture would be more correct, instead of saying "race relations" it would be "culture relations."

Response by CPO Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2016 11:33 AM

2016-06-28T11:33:10-04:00

A Wound wont heal if you keep cutting it open or digging at the scab. I'm 41 I have seen things improve in my life then in the last 7 years we are back to square one. Race riots, murdering police, PC gone insane to the point you cant not even compliment someone of another race with out being called racist (Timberlake). Want it to end.... Stop talking about it. Stop letting the media make it story number one. Stop letting politicians fan the flames to get votes, stop letting grafters and con men (Sharpton / KKK) insight riots and discord. Stop letting people profit off of it. Slavery was a horrible thing and EVERY ethic culture did it. I say to all STOP making yourself into a slave for others agendas. In America if you apply yourself you CAN become anything you want, Neurosurgeon, President, CEO, PHD, anything. You have to be willing to do the work. That's the catch nothing is easy or free that is worth anything. You have to WORK for it.

Sadly it is much easier to blame someone else for your failures in life. The Media and all those people pushing their racist agenda will use anyone to advance their cause. The KKK say its all Minority's, they point to the power white people once held and say take it back, then ask for donations. The BLM say all white people are to blame for lives they lead, then demand reparations and donations. Sharpton has a long history of causing strife and discord then holding out his hat for donations, that is when he isn't demanding extortion money. (see Walmart and Sharpton)

If everyone would take Personal responsibility for their own lives and actions I think most of the "race" issues would be cleared up. That's one of the things I love about the Military we all learn that we are the only ones responsible for our Choice's.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2016 11:34 AM

2016-06-28T11:34:54-04:00

We will be waiting til the end of time.....as there are those in the world that can not/will not let it go and keep a hold of what they believe and in turn teach their youth the same beliefs. Perpetual cycle that will always keep rolling along.

Response by COL Jean (John) F. B. made Jun 28 at 2016 11:40 AM

2016-06-28T11:40:58-04:00

CPT Jack Durish It will never heal as long as race-baiters can make money or boost their causes/agenda by keeping it alive.

Response by SFC Pete Kain made Jun 28 at 2016 11:50 AM

2016-06-28T11:50:05-04:00

Even if we manage to get over the race thing, we will find another way to hate each other, Eye, hair, height, weight you name it and it will become the new group to hate each other over. We humans are a messed up lot.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jun 28 at 2016 12:10 PM

2016-06-28T12:10:24-04:00

CPT Jack Durish, when people stop focusing upon race - and not before. All of this "racial sensitivity" only serves to prolong the problem.

The only way to eliminate racism is to stop considering race to be a valid factor in deciding anything and to just move on. This includes the black community, BTW - which is currently our greatest reservoir of racism in our society today.

Response by MSG Brad Sand made Jun 28 at 2016 1:02 PM

2016-06-28T13:02:54-04:00

They are, or were, healed. We just let others keep reopen the wounds for their own benefit. Unless we are talking about the slavery taking place in Islamic nations or the human trafficking taking place across the World...see Islamic nations above...which the US is actually leading the fight against?

Response by SGT Jeremiah B. made Jun 28 at 2016 2:17 PM

2016-06-28T14:17:48-04:00

To be honest - When your generation dies. We like to act like it was all so far in the past, but the truth is, it's in living memory. You can't just act like we should all get over it when, if you're anything like my dad, as a young man, you thought it was okay to call people "nigger" and that inter-racial marriages were an abomination that "weakened the races." Oddly, the people I know that get the angriest about "race baiting" are people I know damn well were racist as hell when they were younger (though they have honestly advanced light years from where they were when I was a young kid). Their claims of innocence and outrage are somewhat misplaced.

NOTE: I'm not saying YOU specifically thought any of those things. I've asked some really hard questions of the baby boomers in my life though (and they come from all over the country); the consensus is clear - that sort of behavior and thought was prevalent.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Jun 28 at 2016 2:49 PM

2016-06-28T14:49:23-04:00

The biggest answer is when people stop clinging to skin color as a crutch. I've grown up in rough neighborhoods and I find it ridiculous when I'm told the only reason I got out was because I'm white. Skin color has no bearing on whether someone saves up money or not.

Most recently I am reminded of the ridiculousness of the racial argument when the Red Cross had to issue an apology over a pool safety poster. I looked at the poster and saw both blacks and whites behaving appropriately and both blacks and whites behaving recklessly. I saw both black and white parents being attentive of their children. I saw both black and white lifeguards enforcing the rules. But because black children were used as an example of reckless behavior, people concluded it was racially demeaning. Despite the fact that the actual poster shows both blacks and whites being reckless, someone didn't like black people being used as an example.

When I pointed this out, I was told my whiteness forces me to only see what I want to see and I'm in denial about the oppression of "his people" and I need to seek professional help in order to atone for my whiteness.

If we can't even have a serious conversation about pool safety without playing the race card, then what's the point. I've had close personal friends tell me that the only way blacks and whites would ever be equal is if there were exactly as many black presidents as there were white presidents. When I'm told that the only way we can be equal is when I have a chain around my neck and work the fields... I'm sorry. This crap has to stop. I'm sick of hearing about it and these individuals are honestly starting to scare me. I shouldn't have close personal friends calling for a mass genocide of white people because of some injustice that was suffered generations before any of us were alive.

THIS HAS TO STOP.

[Enclosed is the last post I saw from a friend whom I trusted with my life before he deleted and blocked me. This is scary coming from a close friend.]

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2016 3:21 PM

2016-06-28T15:21:51-04:00

When everyone can get over it and move forward. There are always going to be racial differences not just in the states, but all over the world. Learn to respect each other differences and we will be ok.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Jun 28 at 2016 5:33 PM

2016-06-28T17:33:58-04:00

When everyone can sing the chorus to "Let it Go". Interesting thing. In WA they used to have an essentially minority business preference for State work which like Fed work with SBA costs the taxpayers more money overall. It's one of the many social programs we pay for. It was sunsetting so there was an initiative to keep it going for some period of time. Since I was a US Government contracting officer and engineer, I was curious about it before I cast my ballot. So I called up the proponents and asked, what was trying to be "fixed" and under what circumstance would the "need" for it go away? The response was I was obviously a bigot and that was the most polite word. I would have been for it if there was some logic chain but apparently nothing in the Universe will satisfy some. So it got my thumbs down along with enough other votes to kill it. Too bad. There may have been something to it, but we'll never know now.

BTW, we've had incredible successes using the varied SBA programs. That's one end of the spectrum. Interesting enough, those incredible folk are the most critical of other minorities who they see as poisoning the well. I thought I disliked the entitled crowd. They visibly hated them and obviously could get away using words I couldn't.

Response by Maj William W. 'Bill' Price made Jun 28 at 2016 8:01 PM

2016-06-28T20:01:20-04:00

I think that those who keep ripping away the scar tissue don't want any healing, CPT Jack Durish. To them, "We the People" is a proclamation based on a lie and a deceit. Their business of racial division is too lucrative for them to even tolerate the suggestion that healing is possible. For them, the wounds must be kept fresh and painful.

Response by MSgt Eric Roseberry made Jun 28 at 2016 8:25 PM

2016-06-28T20:25:51-04:00

"racial bigots are no longer welcome in polite society." Well perhaps when that statement approaches being true we will have taken a step

Response by SSG Roderick Smith made Jun 29 at 2016 8:48 AM

2016-06-29T08:48:17-04:00

About a year ago, a black friend of mine posted a piece written by a black female. In her writing, she talk about how she had to suppress her blackness when dealing with white people. My friend then went on to talk about how he felt that he would never get a fair shake in life because he was black. He said that he could never get angry at work, because then he would be the "angry black man", and he felt that he couldn't go to job interviews with facial hair... because a black man with facial hair is a bad thing, I guess. And one of his (and the author of the story he shared) major complaints is that he can't act like him self out of fear that he will upset white people and lose everything he has. And through all this... he forgot to mention that he had just graduated from a great law school... in Massachusetts... where he grew up with me... and where we attended white, Catholic, private schools for the majority of our schooling.

Here's the deal... I truly believe that while there are white people that exacerbate the issue, the true problem is that blacks LET IT GET TO THEM. You CANNOT tell me that there is somewhere I can't succeed. He said that he can't just step into a new job and be himself. To a certain extent, he's right. When I show up at a new unit, I'm not myself either... because I take the time to test the temperature of the unit and its personnel. I'm on my best behavior. That doesn't have anything to do with my skin color though... it's just good practice. EVERYONE should do that. I DON'T CARE if you don't like me for what I am. Chances are, I'm not here to impress you anyway. And if for some crazy reason, I have a supervisor/employer that is SO racist that it isn't going to work out... then I'll find a solution. If that solution is me moving on, then so be it. It's not worth my time anyway.

Some people act like it's them against the world. It's not. There is no panel of racist judges that you have to stand in front of on a daily basis. It's time for people to start taking responsibility for their own actions, lives, and futures.

CPT Jack Durish, "We the People" will become "We the People" when the People decide to commit themselves fully to being the People. There's a quote by Theodore Roosevelt that comes to mind. A lot of people find it racist and dividing. It's not. It's inclusive and binding... if you want to be included in and bound to the greatest country on Earth.

Response by SFC Marcus Belt made Jun 29 at 2016 10:21 AM

2016-06-29T10:21:31-04:00

I think it's probably intrinsic in the human condition. Even if the construct of "race" or ethnicity weren't the divisive factor, some other element would be. So if we move past Black [people] versus White [people], what then? Well we've seen it, white and black middle class people who freely associate with each other, but wouldn't dream of associating with folks outside their socioeconomic status...or urban versus rural, or north versus south, or Texans versus everyone else (just kidding, I'm a "naturalized" Texan).

Humans tend to cluster themselves into groups that we perceive as similar to ourselves, and dislike or distrust those groups we perceive as being dissimilar to ourselves, and even when these divisions don't appear along racial lines, they're there.

Response by Capt Gregory Prickett made Jun 29 at 2016 12:57 PM

2016-06-29T12:57:33-04:00

You know, looking at this and the responses are telling.

Like many of my generation, I watched civil rights change in this country. One of my memories of my childhood was driving cross-country in an old station wagon and asking dad to stop so I could get a drink of water. Dad looked and then replied that I wouldn't like that water - merely because there was a "colored" sign by the fountain. I never much saw the point or understood that position, but that was how he was raised. At the same time, as being part Indian, he was discriminated against. It was not cool to be an Indian when he was growing up, so he did everything he could to avoid it.

Now, years later it is better, but it is decidedly not equal. And while many whites say that it's over and other races need to step up and deal with it, to not play the race card, or tear away the scar tissue, it is not the whites who get to say that it is over, that any claim of discrimination is bogus. I can go into any minority community and show you racism today. It can be subtle or blatant, but it is there.

It's present when you have a predominantly white police force for a predominantly minority community, whether that community is Ferguson or an Indian reservation. It's present when you don't have any representation on the federal bench, as American Indians don't, where there have only been three total in American history and only one currently. It's present when assholes put up billboards in Tennessee stating "Make America White Again." It's present when a major presidential candidate denigrates an entire group of people based on their Hispanic ancestry, calling them criminals and rapists.

No, this is not an issue of the victims of racial discrimination tearing open the scar tissue, it is a matter of the dominant culture not recognizing what the minority groups have to put up with.

We're not there yet, but we're making progress.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 29 at 2016 4:54 PM

2016-06-29T16:54:23-04:00

Ninety percent of the population has some racial prejudice. The other 10% are liars.

But, what counts is how we act towards one another. Do we let that prejudice dictate our behavior or do work to overcome it and treat each other with respect and courtesy?

Response by SCPO Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 30 at 2016 1:54 AM

2016-06-30T01:54:32-04:00

Begin by eliminating labels like African American, Hispanic American, and any other preface to the title AMERICAN. None of those labels have one speck of value in the 21st Century. Outlaw names and titles like the BET, the Black Miss America Pageant, the Black Congressional Caucus, and the hundreds of other organizations or titles that start with Black. There are no and never have been any "White" counterparts, which screams two things. Fire Al Sharpton from MSNBC, and place him immediately in prison for Federal Income Tax Evasion. He goes directly to jail. No Passing Go or collecting $200. Start with that and most other dominoes will begin to fall rather quickly.

Response by Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth made Apr 24 at 2017 4:03 PM

2017-04-24T16:03:39-04:00

It will never fully go away. As long as we are on this earth and there are different races, religions etc, there will always be a divide between the two. I have been in training classes and it was pointed out to me to watch the natural divide among people. We had a training class on diversity with personnel from all ranks and generations. In the morning we did the normal stuff of introductions and held some classroom instruction. The class leader bought lunch and told folks to go get in the line and come back and just visit with each other until the next class started. What he did next drove home the point I am making. The class was naturally divided. Blacks sat with blacks, whites with whites, Women sat with women, people from the same faith sat with each other. We naturally tend to gravitate to our "natural pack" and even in that pack not meaning to people put themselves on a pedestal above others. As long as there are various races and religions, there will be divisions.

Can we make it better...Absolutely we can. How...we look at ourselves as Americans....not white or black, protestant/catholic/atheist/muslim, sunni or shiite. America has taken a lot of things from the military but I wish it would take a lesson on this. Do we have some race relations...yes because we are a microcosm of society but we are a lot better at it that America as a whole. All we care about in the military is whether or not you can do the dang job...I don't care what your color is, religion is, or where you came from...all I want to know is that you are my brother in arms and you will have my back with cover fire when I need it and the same for you with me. We tend to focus on our differences instead of looking at what makes us the same. In my belief, we all came fro Adam...period. That means we have the same DNA...isn't that wild. Take away all of the quotas, hiring practices, and ask the question who are you and what can you do for my company...take away race from applications, resumes, etc. The only way to eliminate racism is to stop considering race to be a deciding factor. We can't do it with Bigots though the extremist that make all of us on every side look bad. Race baiters will always look to make a profit and halt any advancement of the right way, and I firmly believe they will always be around. I agree with JP in the threads below that hate isn't a born trait...it is a learned trait and if we could ever break that cycle we would well be on our way to healing.