Chopped liver?
Posted on 02/01/2023 2:29:53 PM PST by Deadeye Division
What is called Black History Month might more accurately be called “the sins of white people” month. The “sins” of any branch of the human race are virtually inexhaustible, but the history of blacks in America includes a lot more than the sins of white people, which are put front and center each February.
Obviously, there is current political mileage to be gotten from historic grievances. At a minimum, politicians and activists get the media attention that is the lifeblood of their careers. Then there are racial quotas, money for special minority programs and hopes for reparations for slavery. If nothing else, some people get excuses for their own shortcomings — and excuses are very important.
One of the many penetrating insights of the late Eric Hoffer was that, for many people, an excuse is better than an achievement. That is because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future. But an excuse can last for life.
Those black achievements which did not involve fighting the sins of white people get little attention during Black History Month. Indeed, many of those achievements undermine the blanket excuse that white sins are what prevent blacks from accomplishing more. How many people have heard of Paul Williams, who became a prominent black architect long before the civil rights revolution, or about successful black writers in the 19th century?
There was also an outstanding black high school in Washington, D.C., which had remarkable achievements from 1870 to 1955. For example, most of its graduates during that period went on to college, even though most white high school graduates did not make it to college during that era. As far back as 1899, this school’s students scored higher on standardized tests than two of the three white academic high schools in the District of Columbia.
Given the terrible educational performances of so many ghetto schools, you might think that there would be great interest in how this particular school succeeded when so many others failed. But you would be wrong. Where there was any reaction at all from the black establishment to an article I wrote about the history of this school, that reaction was hostility.
Dunbar High School was an achievement, but it destroyed a thousand excuses. The prevailing dogma is that all the failures of black schools were due to the sins of white people, including inadequate funding and racial segregation. But Dunbar was inadequately funded — its class sizes were 40 or more — and it was racially segregated for more than 80 years. Its history of success was therefore not welcomed by black “leaders.”
Another big problem with Black History Month is its narrowness. You cannot understand even your own history if that is the only history you know. Some explanations of what has happened in your history might sound plausible within the framework of just one people’s history, but these explanations can collapse like a house of cards if you look at the same factors in the histories of other groups, other countries, and other eras.
Shelby Steele has pointed out that whites are desperate to escape guilt and blacks are desperate to escape implications of inferiority. But, viewed against the background of world history, neither group of Americans is unique. Nor are the differences between them. Both their anxieties are overblown.
Black-white differences in income, IQ, lifestyle or anything else you care to name are exceeded by differences between innumerable other groups around the world today and throughout history — even when none of the factors that we blame for the differences in America was present.
For example, when the Romans invaded Britain, they came from an empire with magnificent art, architecture, literature, political organization and military might. But the Britons were an illiterate tribal people. There was not a building on the island, and no Briton’s name had ever been recorded in the pages of history.
The Britons didn’t build London. The Romans built London. And when the Romans left, four centuries later, the country fragmented into tribal domains again, the economy collapsed, and buildings and roads decayed. No one would have dreamed at that point that someday there would be a British Empire to exceed anything the Romans had ever achieved.
Maybe we need a British History Month.
This post originally appeared in Capitalism Magazine in Feb 2002.
Oh good grief. It is here again. Completely forgot about it, with the flood of racist news coverage.
I am so tired of the whining and the lies. I have had it up to here. The lie about the “rampant” rate at which police kill blacks in the line of duty when the truth is that blacks are killed by police at rates less than that of whites and on a per crime basis. They lie about how they commit few crimes. They lie about having no opportunities after decades of affirmative actions and trillions of dollars spent on the black community. They claim to be the victim of racism when every poll out there shows how blacks are more racist than anyone else with this being believed by even a majority of blacks. They claim it isn’t fair that they cannot get jobs and one can only assume that being illiterate, sagging your pants, and being disrespectful as a rule is not the reason (sarcasm). They complain about poor schools when it is the black students who disrupt the classroom and the teacher’s fault for not being able to control things (and when teachers try to gain control or expel black students, they are accused of racism).
The list of whining and lies goes on and on. What the black community wants is to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, to be allowed to commit whatever crime they want, to have no responsibilities at all and to still remain the victim of anything and everything. I have had it with their excuses and demands. Maybe it’s time to put on their adult pants, assume some responsibility for their own actions and just grow up.
I want one million dollars from the thankless Black community to pay for my family fighting on the Union side to free the slaves. Either that, or a bounty should be available to any Black (call it the Marcus Garvey payment) willing to return to Africa and leave America once and for all.
I thought all months are black history month.
Chopped liver?
Some white guy trying to hog “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
I know I simply stop talking with people who taught black history month or any history month for that matter.
I’d laugh ... but that’s exactly what the damned leftists are pushing.
American History Month, Chinese History Month, European History Month, Hispanic History Month, Hindu History Month, Jewish History Month ... nope, just Black History Month because racism that’s why
They are. Don’t be misled.
Go to any public school celebrating black history month, and chances are you will be more likely to see pictures of al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, rather than any mention of Clarence Thomas or any other conservative black iconic leaders.
It’s become more of an alter to baal, than a tribute to real black leaders.
With its accompanying broadcast: Finding Your Roots” aka “Your Ancestors Were Slave Owners” show.
It’s every month, every week, every day. Why even mention February as the month for it?
What goes unsaid about the evil Whites and their treatment of
Blacks is this.
Not everyone in the South owned slaves. In the North no one
did.
West of Texas no one did.
To bump up the number of slave owners, it is not uncommon
for people to count every member of a family as a slave
owner. That includes men, women, and their children. If
they have family members living with them, those people
are also counted as slave owners. Folks, one person
bought the slave. It is reasoned to state that a husband
and wife were slave owners, but the wife may not have
made the call, when you get down to it. It doesn’t stop there.
If non-slaves were also employed at a farm, those
people are also counted as slave owners. There may be
other categories that I’m not remembering at this moment,
but possibly not.
No one mentions the vast percentage of American citizens
who did not own slaves back in the day.
No one mentions how many Whites died during the civil war
to rescue Blacks from slavery.
We are not a perfect nation. We never have been and we
never will be, but folks we are humans, and that is the
human condition everywhere.
Every single issue with the U. S., has been an issue
with other nations. Since we’re talking about slavery,
let’s touch on the collective taboo that you seldom
hear about.
Blacks in Africa kidnapped and sold off their Black
brothers and sisters. It isn’t just Whites who did
things that were wrong. It isn’t just Blacks who
overcame. Whites helped them overcome. Sadly it
took a long time, but it happened because Whites
joined Blacks to fight for it.
It’s time to put slavery behind us. We ended slavery
in the 1860s. We worked hard to remove any obstacles
to Blacks over the years. Today Blacks compete with
Whites for any job they want, frequent any facility
they want, live their live anywhere they want.
It’s up to them to put their nose to the grind-stone
and achieve anything they want, just like everyone
else has to. I’m glad to see this.
We have equality. Let’s move on.
There’s a slightly evil game I like to play in February. When the topic of Black celebrities comes up I always cite Vivian Thomas as my most admired Black Celebrity
“who’s she?” Is the most common comment.
HE was a black, high school educated janitor at John’s Hopkins hospital who basically developed heart surgery in the 1940s. He worked with Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig to help so-called “blue babies” suffering from a congenital defect called Tetralogy of Fallot.
I can’t do his story justice but look him up. He saved my brothers life 77 years ago.
Ahhh...perfect. Black history month. Hows that feel for ya muh brutha? And hows that feel for all the Black cops getting called racist? I still dont get how they spin that...black beating black to death is racist...but its brilliant! B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T!!! /s
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