Dr. Thomas Sowell: A Tangled Web Of Racial Politics

In this post-racial America that was supposed to be Barack Obama's hallmark, we find that things have not changed one little bit. Dr. Sowell reminds us that the recent Supreme Court decision which vailidated the complaints of several New Haven firefighters who were denied promotion because they were white may have been a good decision because it was fair, but also that the decision was a rare case of sanity in an insane political world.

In his latest column for Town Hall, he writes:

The original Civil Rights Act of 1964 was very straightforward in forbidding discrimination. But, even before that Act was passed, there were already people demanding more than equality of treatment. Some wanted equality of end results, some wanted restitution for past wrongs, and some just wanted as much as they could get.

Those that want equality of end results or simply to get as much as they can without having to work for it are the problem. Instead of making themselves better people, they play the race card or the victim card in the hopes of gaining something for little or no labor on their part.

More:

Opponents of the Civil Rights Act said that it would lead to racial quotas and reverse discrimination. Advocates of the Act not only denied this, they wrote the language of the law in a way designed to explicitly prevent such things. But judges, over the years, have "interpreted" the Civil Rights Act to mean what its opponents said it would mean, rather than what its advocates put into the plain language of the legislation. A key notion that has created unending mischief, from its introduction by the Supreme Court in 1971 to the current firefighters' case, is that of "disparate impact." Any employment requirement that one racial or ethnic group meets far more often than another is said to have a "disparate impact" and is considered to be evidence of racial discrimination.

The problem is that there is no evidence of such racial discrimination in these cases. Having grown up in predominantly black Prince George's County, Maryland, I have seen this up close. I went to public school with all my black peers. We all attended the same classes and were presented with the same study material. Those that scored better on the exams were those who applied themselves and made an effort to learn. Those that didn't do so well were those who were lazy and didn't do the work that was required of them.

It is that latter group that is most likely to play the race card or the victim card claiming some sort of discrimination when the truth is that they simply didn't want to work.

Why does this mentality survive today?

Read on:

The dogma survives because it is politically useful, not because it has met any test of facts.

That's it. No other reason. It is easy for leftists with political aspirations to buy votes by jumping on the victimology bandwagon and then promising to help those "victims" through government intervention. In other words, they promise to make other people pay by redistributing wealth.

But it is amazing that while minorities claim racial dicrimination in most areas, you won't ever hear them complain about it in other areas, such as sports. Dr. Sowell gives us some good insight on that:

Does anybody seriously doubt that blacks usually play basketball better than whites?

So, why aren't their any complaints of racial discrimination in the NBA or even the NFL? Because it would strip away the illusion of victimization.

If the Dems and other leftists were serious about transforming America into a "post-racial" society, their first step should be to tell all those who would play the race card to be quiet.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

A Tangled Web
Dr. Thomas Sowell
TownHall.com
July 7, 2009

A Couple Of Stories About Race-Baiting And Politics

Having grown up in Prince George's County, Maryland (known a "P.G. County" to us natives) I am very dismayed and shamed by this report. You would think that a pre-dominantly black county like P.G. would have grown beyond this sort of thing, especially after helping to elect America's first black President.

From News Channel 8:

A Prince George's Community College student says she was driven from class because of her political beliefs. Gloria Alfonzo says she endured racial taunts and slurs because she supported John McCain's presidential campaign. Her problems, she said, began with an assignment to write about the merits of Barack Obama. When she announced she differed with Obama, Alfonzo says her African-American classmates subjected her to an onslaught of racial hatred. "I was frightened," she recalled. "It was horrible; it was extremely horrible. I was a little scared." Alfonzo said all of her classmates -- except for herself and one other -- were black, as was the instructor, Ayanna Watson. She says the teacher demanded to know whether she is a Republican.

No mention of this on the local news affiliates of NBC Channel 4, ABC Channel 7 or CBS Channel 9. But you have to wonder what the coverage would have been like if Alfonzo were black and her classmates were white.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

McCain Supporter Claims She Suffered Racial Taunts In Class
News Channel 8
November 11, 2008

And up in Minnesota, an attack on the Augsburg College campus was certainly politically motivated and possibly racially motivated as well.

Annie Grossman was attacked outside of her dorm after being confronted by four black women.

From Paul Walsh at the Star Tribune:

An Augsburg College student and Sarah Palin supporter from Alaska was beaten on election night while walking to her dorm and was called a racist by a group of four young women because she had on a McCain/Palin presidential campaign button, authorities and the victim said. ... Under a skyway connecting the two buildings, four women "bigger than I am" came up to her, she said. "One approached me and got in my face and called me racist because I had the pin on. That really ticked me off, but I kind of left it alone because she was so much bigger than I am," said Grossmann. She is 5 feet 2 and weighs 120 pounds, and played boys high school hockey in Alaska. "The girls in the background were just a little bigger than me. They were mocking me from the sidelines. "I didn't say anything. ... This one [bigger] girl grabbed me by the shoulders and was holding me. After about five minutes, I just wanted to get out of there." Grossmann, who is white, said she told the women, who were black, "You guys don't even know me. There's no reason to think I'm racist." At that point, she said, she pushed the bigger one in the group, and "she punched me, and the back of my head hit a brick wall."

Again, what if the assailants had been white and Grossman had been black? Would the Mass Media be this silent on the whole thing?

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Politics Prompted Her Assault, Augsburg Student Says
Paul Walsh
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
November 12, 2008