This is an excellent and scathing piece by Nina May about Obama and race politics in America. It posits an interesting angle as to where the real "race war" lies. One in which I have certainly considered in various discussion groups.
Here's an excerpt:
"There was a big problem with Barack’s mea culpa speech in Philadelphia, defending his racist pastor, Jeremiah White. He failed to mention that over 300,000 white Americans gave their lives to end slavery. He didn’t mention that in 1854, abolitionists left the Democratic Party and founded the Republican Party specifically for the purpose of ending slavery and giving equal rights to all those who had been in bondage. And when he does mention the 3/5ths clause in the Constitution, he totally got it wrong, the way most Americans do. News flash...it was the abolitionists who insisted on it so that the slave holding states could not have their slaves counting as constituents so they could get more pro-slavery representation in congress. This is one of the most powerful battles fought by whites, to end slavery, which has been mischaracterized as being racist.
He needs to read the history of this battle for equality and realize that the party he embraces today was the party that voted against the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, while the Republicans supported them unanimously. He needs to acknowledge that the two dozen civil rights bills that were passed by the Republicans were overturned by the Democrats when they regained control of the House, Senate and White House at the end of the 19th Century.
It was at this time that the Democratic Party instituted Jim Crow laws. It was not whites that did this against blacks, it was bigoted, racist Democrats who would choose to divide a nation rather than give freedom to those they considered inferior. Had blacks been voting equally in both political parties, there never would have been literacy tests, poll taxes or other restrictions to voting. But because all blacks at this time identified with the party of Lincoln and were actually the ones starting Republican parties in southern states, and running and getting elected as Republicans, the Democrats knew that to kill a Black person was killing a Republican."
Many people are quick to point out comments made by his pastor but I feel that 300 years of perverse oppression are given little consideration. It will take more generations for us to recover what happened and anger is understandable.
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely truth to what you say. It will take some time but the point of the article was to show that Black Republicans do exist and feel shy about it. Yet, as the article points out, they shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteMen in positions of leadership like Pastor White should preach about the future and successes of blacks. They needn't forget the past but it should be managed differently if you get my drift. Being toxic and to continue to open wounds is not beneficial to any American.