Yesterday I was listening to NPR - National Public Radio, while driving in my car, working. I got so upset with the topic and callers that I just had to try and dial in to the station, 88.1 FM.
But ALAS - it was a pre-recorded show and not taking any calls.
Some guy ? had written a book recently - “Slavery, by Any Other Name” - I think was the title? Anyway, this guy had spent days, months, years? Researching through old records of arrests and trials in various southern states, like maybe: South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
The bottom line, or gist, of the entire book was - the Plight of Blacks AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil War. ‘THEY’ were still suffering, wronged, and people were calling in - raising the question of RECLAMATION.
The crux of the entire matter could be summed up by saying:
BECAUSE BAD WHITE PEOPLE ABUSED GOOD BLACK PEOPLE - 200, 150, 100, 50 YEARS AGO - even though the WHITE descendents did NOT do it - and were NOT responsible in any way, some felt that the CURRENT BLACK descendents were somehow ENTITLED TO some monetary restitution NOW!
WHAT A CROCK!
What about what the WHITE man did to the RED MAN? He/They were here BEFORE us! AND WERE SCREWED OVER!
What about the YELLOW man? He/They were used as SLAVE LABOR to build Railroads across this wide Nation, AND WERE SCREWED OVER!
What about the WHITE - IRISH DUMB MICKS? Of which were my ANCESTORS! They came over here by the Thousands, because of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland - AND WERE SCREWED OVER!
What about the Spanish/Mexicans who were in the South-Western Territories, BEFORE they were States, and who had LAND GRANTS, but were FORCED OUT - AND WERE SCREWED OVER!
What about the WHITE ETHNIC GROUPS: French, Canadian, Italian, Polish, German, Finnish, Swede, Norwegian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Welsh, English, Scottish, and others - AND WERE SCREWED OVER?
As I see it, with basically only TWO exceptions, the greater majority of all of these Nationalities, ASSIMILATED themselves INTO the fabric of American Society.
The two exceptions - now referred to as AFRO-AMERICANS and MEXICAN ILLEGAL ALIENS - each DEMAND SPECIAL TREATMENT! WHY?
INSTEAD of the old adage - “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start right over again!” - OR - “Pull yourself up by your boot-straps!” - OR - “United we stand - Divided we fall!” - Some of the members of these two groups act like: “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - YOU OWE ME because … thus and so!”
There are many successful AMERICANS in both our history, as well as currently, who not only assimilated, but also achieved GREATNESS - IN SPITE OF BEING BLACK!
BILL COSBY - TIGER WOODS - BARACK OBAMA - OPRAH - COLIN POWELL - CONDOLEEZZA RICE - JAMES EARL JONES - LAURENCE FISHBURNE - SAMUEL L. JACKSON - THURGOOD MARSHALL - CLARENCE THOMAS - MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. - and Thousands More!
They didn’t just “CRY OVER SPILLED MILK” - they grabbed the Bull by the horns and WORKED - and EARNED everything they achieved - and as a WHITE man, I am PROUD of them, as AMERICANS - not BLACK Americans, or AFRO-Americans, but as AMERICANS - people who ‘had a dream’ and worked hard to achieve it!
Is this not what America is all about?
I leave you with one simple and final question:
If their ancestors had NOT been forcibly dragged here as Slaves - WHERE WOULD THEY BE NOW?
Perhaps in some Genocide-Ridden African Nation? Starving and dying of malnutrition in some Third-World Country? Maybe never ever even BORN?
To my knowledge, the GATEWAY OF AMERICA does NOT have any LOCK on it, to prevent anyone from ESCAPING!
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