In America “back in the day,” just as there were essentially two political parties, Democrat and Republican, there were also, in essence, two classes of blacks – “house Negroes” and “field Negroes.”
House Negroes were domesticated: babysitters, butlers, maids, cooks, etc. They literally waited on “Massa, hand and foot.” Yes, house Negroes did disagree with most of the master’s policies, but they got to eat the leftovers, wear their castoffs and get occasional handouts from him. If anyone should talk to them about running away (“going up North”), their response would be something like, “What you mean, leave? Where we gonna’ go to get benefits like this? We deserve this. Anyway, Massa don’t beat us every day!”
Field Negroes, on the other hand, literally worked in the fields from “sun up to fall down,” did all the outside dirty work, were beaten regularly and deprived of all creature comforts. They often had their children taken away and sold. The women were regularly raped by the white overseers (one more reason all blacks are not black) and so, consequently, the field Negroes were always looking for, and attempting, an escape.
Strangely enough, it seems this closely parallels the political landscape today. Many 21st-century blacks could be compared to those house Negroes of yesteryear. They “follow the leaders” and are complimented, coddled and comforted with political rhetoric and promises of more benefits. When challenged to consider options, they tend to reply, “Leave? Go where? Where else we gonna get all these benefits and free goodies, like affirmative action, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free abortions and other special programs? Anyway, they owe us.”
On the other hand, there are those who refuse to remain on the plantation or stay in their place. These choose a different path. They declare, “We don’t want handouts, we want to own our own land, grow our own businesses, be responsible for ourselves, make our own decisions and, yes, we vehemently disagree with their policies (some have been so radical as to join/attend tea-party rallies). These field Negroes are castigated by black leaders, criticized and called names: “Oreos” (black on the outside, white inside), “Uncle Toms” and “Clarence” (as in Justice Clarence Thomas).
Any of that sound familiar? Is it too much of a stretch to say that it seems as if today many blacks have switched from depending on a big white house in Mississippi to a big White House in Washington, D.C.? (And oh yeah, spare me the name calling; I have been, and am regularly, called all those names and more. For a more comprehensive list see my book at BlackYellowDogs.com.)
Let us be crystal clear: Whenever and wherever it was/is practiced, slavery was and is wrong. It cannot, nor should it ever, be justified. Nothing in this article should be misconstrued as supporting or justifying slavery or violence against any people. Furthermore, I am confident you would be hard pressed to find any intelligent American who would not agree that slavery is an egregious stain on the fabric of America’s history.
That being said, let the record show that slavery/violence is not, and was not exclusively restricted to and imposed on blacks in America. It was practiced, among other countries, in Rome, China and Japan, as well as Africa and Islamic countries, where in some areas it is still practiced today. Enslaving conquered people was a common practice, regardless of color; Romans slaves, for example, came in all colors, and black African tribes routinely enslaved (and sold) other blacks. We could examine some of the horrific injustices done to members of each of the aforementioned ethnic groups, but that is far beyond the scope of this article.
In order to objectively view any situation and reach an unbiased conclusion, one should review the evidence on hand and investigate further, as required. Jumping to conclusions can be misleading, if not dangerous. Let’s address two common assertions:
“All blacks are dangerous!” “All whites are racist!”
Some blacks are dangerous. Remember Jesse Jackson’s confession? “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the streets and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved … after all we have been through. Just to think we can’t walk down our own streets, how humiliating.” This was, no doubt, based on some sobering statistics; of the 9,000 African-Americans who are murdered annually, 93 percent are killed by blacks.
Some whites are racists. The KKK lynched 4,730 people (that we know of) between 1881 and 1953: 3,437 blacks and 1,293 white Republicans. Sen. Robert Byrd (a former “exalted cyclops” in the KKK) said on a Fox News interview, “There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I’m going to use that word. …”
Nevertheless, the simple truth is, all blacks are not dangerous, any more than all whites are racists. Those without hands-on experience broad brush the “race issue.”
Liberals are purported to be the friends and champions of “minorities,” with blacks at the top of the list. Really? Let’s do a quick quiz. Who founded Planned Parenthood? Answer: Margaret Sanger, a liberal who founded the American Birth Control League, which became Planned Parenthood. She had as one of her main goals the elimination of blacks. Is it working? Thirty-five to 40 percent of Planned Parenthood’s funding comes from tax revenues (our money), and guess who supports government funding for Planned Parenthood? Did you guess Democrats? Guess where 80 percent of the Planned Parenthood centers providing abortion services are located? If you guessed predominately black communities, you were right again. Government estimates are that more than 1,200 black babies are aborted every single day. Here is a quote that shocked me (not easy to do): “Several years ago, when 17,000 aborted babies were found in a dumpster outside a pathology laboratory in Los Angeles, Calif., some 12-15,000 were observed to be black” (Erma Clardy Craven, social worker and civil-rights leader: deceased).
No wonder African-Americans are no longer the largest minority group in America today. Estimates are that from 1973 to the present, there have been 16 million black babies aborted. Absent those abortions, the current black population would be between 52-54 million instead of 38+ million currently.)
Oh yes, one more minor statistic; according to economist and professor Walter Williams: “Historically, from 1870s on up to about 1940s, and depending on the city, 75 to 90 percent of black kids lived in two-parent families.” (This was before government decided to help black families.) Today, 70 percent of blacks are born to single women. Today’s government has accomplished something even slavery could not: the destruction of the black family. Makes you wonder whose side liberals are really on, doesn’t it?
Are we truly seeing it the way it is, or the way someone with an axe to grind tells us it is? In my opinion, present racial issues are a matter of perspective. Today, the “virtual racism” (as I call it) that is causing so many so much heartburn would have been viewed in the 40s, 50s or even the early 60s by rank-and-file blacks as having reached the promised land! The prospect of being possibly red-lined for a loan, perhaps not promoted on a well-paying job with a major corporation, encountering an insensitive clerk at a major department store or experiencing deliberately slow service in a restaurant chain would have been an occasion for singing “We have overcome!”
Consider:
- 1963: “Bull” Connor set police dogs on nonviolent civil-rights protesters in Alabama.
- 1964: Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, two young whites, were murdered in Mississippi as they attempted to assist in registering black voters.
- 1955 (before Rosa Parks): A 15-year-old black girl, Claudette Colvin, was handcuffed and snatched off a city bus in Birmingham, Ala., for sitting in the “white section.”
- 2012: Oprah Winfrey (net worth $3 billion) is one of the richest women in the world.
- 1857: The U.S. Supreme Court declared blacks “… a subordinate and inferior class of beings …” (Dred Scott decision)
- 1991: Clarence Thomas is sworn in as Supreme Court justice.
- 1955: Emmett Till, a young black male from Chicago, was lynched for whistling at a white woman.
- 2008: Barack Hussein Obama, a young black male from Chicago, is sworn in as president of all the United States (including Mississippi, where Till was murdered) and blacks, who now vote freely, voted for him. (Chances are, some whites there voted for him, too.)
So, are blacks hypocrites or stupid? As one who has lived through the 40s, 50s and 60s and seen the enormous progress made by blacks in America, I am convinced that blacks are neither hypocrites nor stupid. They are, as was I, uninformed of many of the key elements contributing to the current state of the union. While there are no perfect places or people, viewed objectively, America in 2012 comes as close to truly being “the land of the free” as any nation on earth.
I can say without reservation wherever and whenever: God bless America!
