2005-10-16
The Lonliness of the “Black Conservative”
"...black American leaders are practicing a politics that draws the group into a victim-focused racial identity that, in turn, stifles black advancement more than racism itself.."
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6 comments:
Better for a black man to kill his wife (OJ), molest children (MJ), or get caught smoking crack while serving as major of an impoverished, desperate city (Marion Berry, who got a rousing reception and heroic intro at this year's Million Earnest and Angry Black People Pep Rally) than to advocate free market economics or reject affirmative action, etc. The former get excuses, rationalizations, and applause, while the latter gets absolute scorn.
I believe that racism is currently about 3rd on the list of things that keep blacks down. The first two (1. lack of education, 2. lack of wealth and assets) are caused by the legacy of racism, but can be overcome with hard work and tenacity. Racism can also be overcome. It just requires a lot of hard work.
This has been the mantra of many black leaders from Booker T. Washington to Carter G. Woodson to Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X. Blacks have to deal with racism as a reality of this Western dominated world. It is just another obstacle.
This does not, however, make me a black conservative. Just because you have been a victim and you are still a victim doesn't mean you have to lie down and take it. Stand up straight, move forward and fight back. That's what I say.
All groups of people have overcome legacies of oppression, including the groups that today have more recently oppressed others. And today's "oppressed people" for the most part descend from people who at some time or another oppressed others. Today in America, the most successful groups are immigrants who have recently been very poor, and acutely oppressed (albeit in other countries).
Any group at the bottom (and all have been at the bottom at some time) can wallow forever there, either fixating on injustices foisted on their forebears and demanding "justice", or can move on and take advantage of the opportunities afforded a constitutional, liberal democracy.
If past oppression could keep people down, the British would still live under harsh rule by Romans, Vikings, and French.
Absolutely true. So the fact that Africans in America are still working to free ourselves from 400 years of oppression in the United States should come as no surprise.
The legacy of past oppression lingers, and racism still exists. Over the next decade we will see that continue to change.
"The first shall become last and last shall be first."
"Africans in America" who are "still working to free [themselves] from 400 years of oppression in the US" are enslaved only by their minds, which concoct such nonsense. Besides some very old black folks (if you are calling them "Africans"), none of them, including Nadir, has ever been non-free.
Are you, Nadir, an "African"? Are you also a "European"? What am I? What are my children?
I can relate to this one. Being a black conservative is like being in school. The smart kid always got picked on by the stupid bully. The smart kid was an outsider to an extent, yet the Bully being dumb as a brick had friends. The thing is his friends were just as dumb as him. The moral of this story is this. The bully works at McDonalds, and the smart kid owns a multi billion dollar software company LOL
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