America is weary of black resentment

Ahwatukee Foothills News ^ | May 15, 2008 | Linda Turley-Hansen

[2ndDivisionVet]

Wouldn't it be something if Michelle Obama, not the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or John McCain, were the reason Barrack Obama looses the presidency? Instead of "change," the First Lady-in-waiting is sticking with old hurts held closely by certain black communities.

They are those who relish the pain suffered by their slave forefathers and mothers. They revisit, over and over, what was; hurts, carefully protected and harbored as badges of honor.

None of us on this land are responsible for what happened to their kin, but they don't care. They marinate in crippling history.

Why?

The reasons reek of the psychology of it all. As long as struggle is someone else's fault, change is not a consideration.

Very few pioneers, who wove the early foundations of this country, missed out on suffering caused by prejudice. Either they were the wrong culture, sex, skill or religion. None, however, endured the evil suffered by the Native American.

Surely, every one of us, who cannot claim Native American blood, should leave this land forever, if justice is to be granted a wounded race. When that is done, let the next victims speak their claims against a nation so grand that during the past century it astoundingly righted major civil wrongs.

Where will it end?

Time for healing is long passed. Resentments and victimhood are now simply an excuse.

Despite her education, Michelle doesn't seem to compute the reality of the struggle of all humanity, everywhere. Behind the scenes, I imagine the Obama campaign handlers are choking on their pizza.

"They just keep raising the bar on Barrack," Michelle complained.

And, we all know what that means. If it's hard to be elected president, it's about discrimination. No mention of black Americans who've broken the attitude chains of helplessness.

There are a good number among the black community who call on their citizens to stop sniveling, to reach forward, not back. They urge them to gather their families, mothers and fathers, and teach children values and the privileges of hard work. But, the other voices seem to dominate. Many are religious leaders, such as Wright, the Obama family guru for 20 years. They capitalize on a transparent time warp. They talk change, but they really mean hold fast to the past and cling to hopelessness. Be sure and blame the white man.

Sometime ago (March/April 1995), Psychology Today quoted British psychiatrist Anthony Daniels (pen name Theodore Dalrymple) in an article called "The Uses of Resentment:" "If the world is unjustly stacked against us ... it absolves us from the painful necessity to change. We can remain exactly the same while calling down anathema on a cruel world."

And then he drives it home: "There is one further advantage of believing oneself to be the victim of circumstance. Our supposed victimhood assures us of our own importance."

No one can ignore the evils of slavery. Like Auschwitz, it'll always be with us. But, even if black Americans cannot find it in their hearts or religions to forgive, they can at least consider the power of letting go for the sake for their children's futures.

The oddness of Michelle's tack is this: she and her husband have proven the laws of hard work. Still, she resorts to political dirty tricks with snarly references to prejudice. Michelle's seeking to capitalize on white guilt, but what she risks is the backlash of those who have grown weary of the gimmick.

Her husband's right. It's time for change. A great place to start is in those black American communities, which cling to cultural resentment.

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Linda Turley-Hansen is a syndicated columnist and former veteran Phoenix television news anchorwoman who lives in the East Valley. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached by e-mail at letters@lindastake.com.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Comments?

[Recovering_Democrat]

In a word, too many are “bitter”, as the supposed Messiah once said.

[Salvey]

Her thoughts are on the money, but she’s a dreadful writer.

[2ndDivisionVet]

It says she’s a former anchorwoman or “news reader” as the Brits would say, so I’d be surprised if writing were her forte.

[BunnySlippers]

I have often contended that the ball is in the black family’s court. Time for parents to blot out the “N” word, “ho”, calling for the killing of police and glorifying of gangs.

Blacks need to take the next step to “liberate” themselves.

[the invisib1e hand]

Comments?

You asked for it.

My hunch is that there is a small and historically effective militant white-hating fraction of the black population -- that is, multi-generational American blacks -- who have pretty much intimidated much of the rest.

But their game is up, and we can thank Jeremiah Wright in part for it; although recent immigration by Africans is changing the whole picture: these people by and large come here, get educated, work very hard, raise families, make wonderful citizens.

The pissing-and-moaning left of every race is, as the author says, "wearisome."

[Tenniel2]

...she and her husband have proven the laws of hard work.

Michelle-pas-belle has proven the laws, all right, but they're the pseudo-laws of affirmative action and reverse discrimination (Bakke, anyone?), not the laws of hard work.

It's been suggested, here and elsewhere, that she knows very well that without her melanin content she wouldn't have gotten anywhere near Princeton, let alone a mid-six-figure do-not-much job.

[stubernx98]

She is of course right. Now if we could wave a wand and change history such that slavery never existed. Think where all these people would be now. Mostly dead, and those that survived would be living under Despots and poverty.

Slavery is an ugly thing, and has been practiced throughout human history, still is in some places.

Part of the problem is that the blacks have a huge inferiority complex, and this is their way to transferring their guilt to someone else(we all do it to some extent(you know - it is George Bush's fault).

Then there is the “Bell Curve”.

[Tax-chick]

Her thoughts are on the money, but she’s a dreadful writer.

Ghastly. She lost me in the first sentence, with "looses" instead of "loses." Honestly, epople! No your homophones - it's what sets us apart from the savages!

[Darren McCarty]

The bottom line is this. The world meets nobody halfway.

[bill1952]

. Michelle's seeking to capitalize on white guilt, but what she risks is the backlash of those who have grown weary of the gimmick.

Michelle is seeking to capitalize on black racism, but what she risks is the backlash of those who have grown weary of the gimmick.

[MARTIAL MONK]

None, however, endured the evil suffered by the Native American.

She crawls out of one swamp and jumps in another.

[sam_paine]

Write their wif ya epople as allways on loosey gucey, TC! =)

[Prole]

I just want to hear Michelle Obama raise her clenched fist and shout, "White Devils!"

Just let it out, Obama. I know what you are thinking whenever you reference "typical white people," and I am not fooled.

I know what you mean when you acknowledge that you were never proud of America before. I know what you are doing when you socialize with scum like Farrakhan, Shabazz, Wright and Sharpton. I know why you cheer for a racist who shouts, "G-D America."

The Obamas have done everything but shout "White Devils," yet I am waiting patiently for the final gaffe on National TV.

Maybe Hillary already has it on a cassette somewhere, and she is just waiting for the right moment to release it?

Regardless of that, M. Obama is one nasty racist.

[Sal]

Michelle's seeking to capitalize on white guilt, but what she risks is the backlash of those who have grown weary of the gimmick.

IMO the Obamas have set back benevolent race relations by at least a generation.

I was always one of the ones showing disapproval when someone made even a mildly offensive racial comment and I actively argued with those who said worse. It's been a long time since I had to do the latter because it's very rare for white people to make such comments nowdays--at least the ones I know.

I could handle the psycho preacher and church members as an aberration in the culture, but then I heard black pundits tell me that this attitude is widespread in black churches.

I hate racism and that includes black racism. And now here I am extremely weary of the gimmick and part of the backlash.

If I'm reacting that way, I have to figure there are huge numbers of people who are too.

[Vigilanteman]

The same could be said about the Hispanics, which isn't a race anyway. I've known a fair number of people of Hispanic origin who came here legally or, if illegally, made every effort to learn English, appreciate our culture and get legalized. Without exception, everyone of these people work hard, love their families and make superb citizens.

Then there are a few of the a**holes of Hispanic background who I used to work with in California. They were clear that I was their inferior because I didn't speak Spanish. Somehow, my presence in their neighborhoods was an invasion, tolerated only because I brought economic value to them.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Many white children today are raised with very few if any prejudices about black children yet many blacks are still resentful that their great great grandfather was (or might have been) a slave against whites who were more than likely NOT slave owners.

[Solitar]

Michelle, Barack, Condi, Colin, Janice (Rogers Brown), and others like them have exceptional IQ's -- the top one-tenth of a percent of those of similar mixed race. They should be working to pull the rest of their mixed race up rather than helping them wallow in victimhood. But victimhood is a way to ignore the reality of their poor situation.

One third of that mixed race have an IQ lower than 80 -- lower than the least bright one-tenth of non-hispanic Whites -- which makes for a very difficult life. The middle third of their mixed race has an IQ of less than 90 -- less than the least bright one-quarter of non-Hispanic whites -- making for a hard life for both groups with IQ's under 90. Only one third have IQ's equivalent to "normal" for non-hispanic Whites. But they could all do much better than they are now if they would put the victimhood stuff behind them and work for the best they can be.

Meanwhile, we Republicans should help the exceptional mixed race Black Republicans -- like Janice Rogers Brown -- gain offices (such as SCOTUS) where they can help all of us. And we should prevent those like Michelle and Barack from keeping their people down.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Ahwatukee is a more recent part of the Phoenix Metro area, yet shares the odd distinction of the area: relatively few black people. There are about 5 million people in the State of Arizona, but only about 3% are black, far below the national average.

Since Phoenix is a post WWII boomtown, from about 50,000 then to over 2,000,000 today, most of the people who live there are from other States. And while there are some ethnic concentrations in Phoenix, they are small, so that the metro area is fairly homogeneous.

This means that ethnic minorities, including ethnic blacks, Asians, and Mexicans, tend to integrate far more rapidly than elsewhere as well. For the most part, ethnic minorities have to go out of their way to concentrate, for example in churches.

So where does this leave racial attitudes in Phoenix?

Well, there were some “race pimps” some years ago, but for the most part, there is little for them to do in Phoenix, except to try to create the illusion of racism where none substantially exists. The last big issue was the Martin Luther King holiday.

But the most interesting thing is the white attitude towards black people: the white children raised here know very little about black people, except what they see on television. They have few preconceived notions, most of which are dispelled when they meet middle class black people.

This means that racism for the most part only exists by ignoring black people, or if they themselves make an issue of it. Otherwise, their actions and behavior speak for themselves as far as acceptance or rejection go.

Arizona was never a slave State, and wasn’t even a State at the time of the Civil War. So slavery wasn’t just different people, but in a different place, and a different time. It is not part of Arizona history.

This is why there is little tolerance or interest in making an issue of ancient wrongs in Arizona. People who do so are just being whiny.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Honestly, epople! No your homophones

Tee-hee, thanks for the chuckle! ;)

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"I could handle the psycho preacher and church members as an aberration in the culture, but then I heard black pundits tell me that this attitude is widespread in black churches."

The things that Wright says and his congregation cheers are widely believed by blacks in the South. I've heard it regularly for decades. I can't say that it comes from the church specifically because it is almost unheard of for blacks and whites to attend the same church around here. Occasionally a funeral will draw some of each, though.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***America is weary of black resentment***

REPARATIONS! Here is the only reparations they should get.

618,000 Americans who died in the Civil War.

Paid in full.

[djf]

They marinate in crippling history.

This gal is a good writer.

[Sal]

I should add that it wasn't just rose colored glasses that made me believe great strides have been made against racism.

Quite a few years ago my two kids and I were watching an old movie that used a racial epithet (not the N word, everybody still knows that word).

It was evident to the kids that it was supposed to be a joke and they didn't get it. They didn't get it because they weren't hearing those things in school or on the street anymore like I used to hear in the olden days.

I went through the list of words I used to hear routinely so the kids would know to avoid them. I was amazed at how many of those words there were and how long it had been since I had heard them and the kids had NOT heard them.

[yldstrk]

Damn straight.

[djf]

We all know the “why”. It’s a trump card that cannot be refuted.

In a white on black encounter, dragging out the history only serves to stop the discussion, because the white person has no way to refute it.

I think it basically serves the same purpose as somebody saying “Yo Mama!” in a black on black encounter.

IMHO if a black person puts the historical slavery-race thing on the table during an argument, they are admitting they lost the REAL argument whatever that is.

[Gator113]

It is my belief that the greater number of Blacks will never be free... not until they realize that they have been free for decades.

[Travelgirl]

618,000 Americans who died in the Civil War.

They NEVER say they appreciate it either.

[hunter112]

A few months ago, I was focused on the victimhood black America would embrace if Barry O was toppled by Hillary, but lately, I've been seeing the feminazi baby-boomer women making the same hurt noises. Just saw it a day or two ago when there were whines and cries about how NARAL endorsed Obama, even though it's over for Hillary.

Whether Obama wins or loses this fall, he and his supporters are going to have to deal with their thwarting of the bitchocracy.

[Solitar]

In a white on black encounter, dragging out the history only serves to stop the discussion, because the white person has no way to refute it.

Oh yes a white person can refute it.

1) Except for a very tiny percentage, presentd-day white people do not have ancestors who owned or supported slavery.

2) Point to the refugees from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, etc. who came here with next to nothing, not even knowing our language -- and yet they have succeeded in less than two generations! How many generations have the Blacks been playing victim instead of getting off their butts and learning and working?

[50sDad]

Bravo. My own pet peeve is with those who would accuse many of us of "disrespecting" them, as if that were something they earned only by their heritage and homeland.

Where I come from, respect is something you earn on a point system. When I first meet you, my respect for you necessarily starts at Zero. By your deeds, by your actions, and by what comes out of your mouth, the world decides how much respect you deserve. You start with none at all, and you gain it by working hard, holding down a job, loving your spouse, caring for your children, being kind to animals, and loving your country.

But because of the entitlement mentality, where you automatically get a check or a promotion or a perk because of the color of your skin or your sex or any government sanctioned bigotry, some think that they are handed 1000 Respect Points at the start of the month. And if you don't see me exhibit the kind of obeisance those imagined points should get you automatically, I must have somehow stolen them from you. This allows the victim to change the subject from "what have I done in my life to earn the respect of others" to "what have YOU done to take the respect I had from me."

Martin Luther King, Jr. had the same human failings we all have, but I do wish that the vision he held for all peoples had really come to pass. I too have a dream that all Americans will be judged not on the color of their skins, but on the contents of their hearts. Sadly, most of who pass for leaders in the black community today don't share that vision, or they would be preaching not "God Damn America" but "God Bless this nation where we have come so far, and can leave old hatreds dead in the past."

[Delmarksman]

I am so sick of this Black Racism garbage. And that’s what it is, garbage.

The Blacks, and most everyone else for that matter, seems to forget that White Christians were enslaved over 2 thousand years ago.
They were treated far worse than the ocassional whip crack.

The were tortured and slaughtered wholesale for sport up to and including being fed to wild animals.

If Obama becomes CIC and the LA Riot crowd starts their crap,
Charlie Manson may well see his Helter Skelter ater all.

[Sal]

I've known that black resentment exists and I guess I've given them a pass in the past because I remembered old denigrating attitudes of whites toward blacks. But I thought that had largely passed on the part of most whites in most places anyway. I know it hasn't disappeared and this crap from the Obamas and others are going to reawaken it IMO.

I remember a friend from Holland a long time ago who was criticized by her in-laws (American) for answering back a black guy (from their integrated church) who made nasty comments about white people. She was dumbfounded that they thought she was racist for confronting him when he was very wrong. She thought they were racist for putting him in a special category that couldn't handle criticism that she and they would have given to a white person.

I agreed with her, but had to admit to myself that at that time I would have been intimidated by the magic word racist and wouldn't have confronted him either. Fortunately, through over use and misuse the magic word is losing its magic. People just might have to get over themselves and learn to interact as people. I hope.

[ought-six]

I’m so sick of this rot that “Native Americans” are water-walkers. Just WTF is a Native American? I was born in America, so by definition I am a Native American. But, alas, I am a white guy, so I get short shrift. All these hyphenated labels do is fracture American society. There’s African-American (a title claimed by 99.9% of the blacks in America, which is ludicrous because the vast majority of them have never been to Africa, nor have their parents, and nor have their grandparents. Mexican-American, Italian-American, Irish-American, ad nauseum; all those hyphenates make one wonder just where their true allegiance lies. Well, I guess I’m just an American-American.

Hyphenates are so silly.

[ladyjane]

the white person has no way to refute it.

Actually you can keep the discussion going by informing them of the 3,000+ black people who owned slaves or the very wealthy black slave breeder who sold his own children into slavery. There were thousands of free blacks in this country before the Civil War. Many of them were also slave owners.

[DugwayDuke]

“It’s been suggested, here and elsewhere, that she knows very well that without her melanin content she wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near Princeton, let alone a mid-six-figure do-not-much job.”

Far more likely that she believes she deserves everything she’s received because of her inate superiority. If anything, she believes she has yet to receive all her superiority deserves.

[JasonC]

I'm not weary, I consider it as laughable as any other kook psychosis, and don't take any of it seriously. Anybody who does is a brainwashed idiot, that's all.

[Minn]

Michelle, Barack, Condi, Colin, Janice (Rogers Brown), and others like them have exceptional IQ's -- the top one-tenth of a percent of those of similar mixed race.

Apart from the rather strange racial categorization based on race, I disagree completely with the assesment.

Michelle strikes me as average at best. She graduated from a prestigious school and hitched herself to a "community organizer". What's the big accomplishment there? She clings to Marxist claptrap, in spite of overwhelming economic and historic evidence of it's failure as an organizing principle of society. How is that smart? Real smart people know that bitterness and whining are unseemly and avoid those behaviors, especially in public.

Condi? Seems like a nice enough lady, but I've always wondered what all the slobbering over her was about. Lot's of academic credentials, but how smart is somebody that thinks they can broker peace in the middle east with diplomacy?

Colin? Who's to say, but one in a thousand in IQ? Not likely.

[Will88]

I don’t know the percentage, but there is still a portion of black Americans who will not let go of the victim status, they cling to it like a non-swimmer clings to a life preserver on a sinking ship. And Michelle and maybe Barack seem to be among that percentage, as well as such race hustlers as JJ and Reverend Al.

Preserving the victim status is one of the most important aspects of life for many. And that leads to all the resentment and nurturing of old wrongs they never themselves suffered, such as is discussed in the article. And this is, of course, being passed on to the next generations as their heritage and built in excuse. I know many white Americans who are very weary of it.

[Will88]

‘I went through the list of words I used to hear routinely so the kids would know to avoid them. I was amazed at how many of those words there were and how long it had been since I had heard them and the kids had NOT heard them.’

Not sure what words you’re referring to, but the kids must be too young or uninterested in listening to rap.

[kalee]

Michele is one nasty piece of work. I can’t imagine her as First Lady.

[STONEWALLS]

“1) Except for a very tiny percentage, presentd-day white people do not have ancestors who owned or supported slavery”

....our family were slave holders...in our records they were listed as “servant”....they were given death bed manumission with land....one branch of these decendants still live on that land....they did alright because they were industrious and had a reverence for education...they were known in the county as “very respectable people”....nothing like that hip hop trash you see on TV.

[elkfersupper]

Obama can't "loose" the presidency.

He might be able to lose it, though.

[Doctor Don]

Black leaders love to talk about slavery. No one in my family ever owned slaves! I am economically enslaved by the crime and laziness in the black community! Jesse...Al...if slavery never occurred, you would still be living in a mud/straw hut in some dark village in Africa. You suckers should rejoice about slavery.. because you never had it so good!

[calex59]

I understand your system but I do it just the opposite. When I meet a new person they start out with 100 percent respect and lose points as they go along. Some of them slip to zero before the first meeting is over but they all start high. Some gain points back over the years but generally when my respect for them is lowered they don’t get it back.

[Solitar]

She clings to Marxist claptrap, in spite of overwhelming economic and historic evidence of it's failure as an organizing principle of society. How is that smart?

I've known far too many people who I know have IQ's over 130 (upper 2%) and/or have Ph.D.s (universities are full of them) but who are also ignorant marxists, socialists, and leftists. Their being intelligent does not mean they are smart. Actually their being very bright makes them more dangerous -- treasonously dangerous.

[djf]

OK.

Imagine a white person was having a discussion with a black person about some issue, just for example, let’s imagine it was teen pregnancy of blacks.

So then, the black person drops the race/slavery bomb.

And the white guy replies as you suggest, and they begin a heated argument about who’s to blame, etc.

The white guy just lost. He played along, and the subject got changed. End of rational discussion about current issues.

[Right Wing Assault]

I’m glad someone had the balls, even if her name is Linda, to write this article. Thank you, Linda. Oh, don’t ever plan to work for a big city paper, though. They don’t go for the truth.

[Paladin2]

Who da ho?

Larry Craig?