Typical

Townhall.com ^ | March 25, 2008 | Cal Thomas

[KingJaja]

What our nation suffers from is not just the legacy of Slavery but the failure of Reconstruction.

There were Irish slaves and White slaves, true. But eventually, over time the Irish were integrated into Society. So much so that by 1960, one of them could become President. Jim Crow Laws were not created to keep the Irish out of mainstream America.

There are living Black Americans that experienced legalized discrimination (Condi Rice is one of them and she is only 51 years old). There are no Irish-Americans who can make that claim.

There is a difference.

There is a reason why half-black people choose to classify themselves as ‘Black’. It’s the ‘one-drop rule’. Blacks did not create the ‘one-drop’ rule, it was a legacy of a society obsessed with race. (Brazil never created such a silly rule). Thankfully, we are slowly but surely moving out of that legacy. But it will take time.

We tend to believe that things can be done presto - afterall, we are Americans. But grievances last generations (witness Yugoslavia, Ireland, Korea(and Japan) and Iraq). That is human nature. It has been barely forty years since the wrongs this Nation committed against the Black Community have been righted. (Conservatives are supposed to understand human nature).

We have made remarkable progress, though.

Let’s stop pretending that the history of Irish in America is analogous to the history of Blacks in America. However, we need to be tough enough to tell the Black Community to get its act together. We need to end the silly ‘War on Drugs’. We need to continue working to bring up the next generation of conservative blacks.

The coming implosion of the Democratic Party (due to Hillary’s insistence on fighting on in a race she can’t win) will offer us our best opportunity.

[BellStar]

Yes true. It was the son of a son of a son all named John. I only recently joined the the DAR and found this out. Those ladies know their genealogy. I had stopped back at Col. Durkee as it was all I needed to join. Two other ladies had joined under Col. Durkee and gave me the rest of the story.

[moonman]

Congrats! Very proud heritage.

[Eroteme]

Cal Thomas said, In his speech last week on race, Sen. Obama said blacks and whites have legitimate grievances and that whites who never owned a slave, or supported the slave trade, or knowingly discriminated against any African American have a right to be angry when affirmative action favors someone of a different race for a job for which they feel they are qualified.

No, Mr. Thomas, Obama did not say that these are legitimate grievances, nor that whites have a right to be angry too. What he did was include those things as examples of resentments whites might harbor. He did not offer any concession of legitimacy.

Obama merely acknowledged that the sentiments exist--a careful construct that I noted at the time, and went back just now to confirm with text. That Cal Thomas heard in that segment any allowance that whites "have a right to be angry" is a function of that artful and deliberate construct. Obama no more empathized or agreed than a psychiatrist noting his patient's delusions.

[Retired COB]

That’s not true! Their ancestors were sold by their own people; it happened then and still happens todays

I agree.

Not only that, these folks should get down on their knees and thank God that their ancestors were enslaved.....otherwise they would have still been in Africa to be wiped out by some tinhorn dictator.

[Verginius Rufus]

It was also the Turks who went around kidnapping people into slavery. Under the Ottoman Empire, periodically agents of the government would go around to Christian villages and take some of the boys away to become slaves of the sultan (the so-called blood tribute or devshirme).