Not too horribly long ago
And in fact, in the memory of people living today, it wasn’t just blacks that were discriminated against. Chinese and Irish were also slaves in the US and elsewhere, and racism against them was common and oppressive.
And because of their communities and their industriousness they grew away from that racism and became productive, and generally well respected members of their communities.
My personal theory about why this happened is that the force of law was not used to make everyone respect them. They developed self respect, and that eventually earns the respect of others.
From the beginning, the hue and cry about racism never did anything to improve the situation, it just made it worse. And while I don’t know if that was the original intent, it certainly has become the agenda. Money and political capital is an integral part of racism and because of that it will never, ever go away. It has become embedded in our culture and is now a thriving industry that feeds a monster.
The people who would profit from divisiveness missed the boat with the chinese and irish, for the most part, and the black/white division is no longer profitable enough to fund all the divisiveness that needs funding. After all, if we can treat each other well and find common ground, there’s no easy way people can profit from us other than actually providing meaningful goods and services, and commerce is so hard. Likewise, political power only exists where people will abandon their liberty in fear.
So the new divisiveness focuses on who uses what bathrooms. Opponents pretty much just want to be left alone in public doing their business, want their kids not to be confronted with more difficulty than they have to be- school age children have enough body image issues and fear of privacy issues without throwing this into the mix. Proponents keep making straw men arguments about how nobody is going to get harmed and it’s happening anyway and who cares? So the sowers of divisiveness have done their job well. There is fear and anger on both sides And everyone is doing everything they can to foster it. There is no other reason to involve so much of the nations resources to cater to a vanishingly small percentage of the population.
And for some issues there is no simple solutions. A school age child who has gender identity issues has far bigger issues than what bathroom or shower room to use. I can sympathise, but I don’t think causing an uproar in the entire educational system is the solution to anything.
The major argument in favor:
“It’s probably been happening all along”,
begs the question, “Then why change the law now?”.
That argument also ignores the troublemakers who had heretofore been constrained.
Now you wouldn’t have to dress or act different to access a locker room of naked women. Just claim idendity.
Right on, Og.
Couldn’t agree with you more.
Dang, I sure have missed your posts! Hope the new job is progressing nicely.
One advantage the Chinese and Irish had was they didn’t have a federal government insist on giving unrequested help. The feds forced help upon the Native American once the frontier closed, with expected results. After 1965 the feds forced help upon the African American, a group that was making strides or improvement even with real estate redlining and all the rest. They were kept from many trades, which needed remedy. But the government just ruined their communities and families. Those were nuclear families in permanent marriages with commercial districts owned by them that they patronized. There were no Folk or People, no Crips and Bloods, their “gangs” were just guys from the neighborhood who ran together, much like the white “gangs.” Public housing was to be paid for, not a freebie, and was Polish and Slovak or WW II starter housing as much as black. This all comes from elderly blacks who I’ve had the honor of asking and been given honest answers.
I don’t know how the sexual deviant and sick fetishist rights movement got equated to racism except by the claim “born that way” which is now being called “even if we weren’t, what does it matter anyway.” I just hope the government wants to force help on them now and leave the blacks alone, so they can be dashed against the rocks and the poor African American community rebound and rebuild.
Strangely, it’s the old 50s Leave it to Beaver style people with impressionable kids who are most whack out of their heads in favor of this, which boggles me.
Agreed, well said Og.
good thinking. It was mostly true that the blacks did better before 1965 than since. It is government writ large. I am thinking more and more we need to start another country. But it would not be long before the takers, envious of our success, showed up and messed it up.
Maybe we need to discriminate against the politicians. Probably could not get a law passed making that legal though.
More is the pity.
Og: I have to disagree that racism is no longer profitable, at least in my area (NY/NJ) it’s very much profitable. Every day working in Brooklyn I encounter people who are convinced they’re victims, while collecting money taken from productive workers in the form of taxes. Since I work in a municipal building we often have cleaning people who are on NYC’s “workfare” program (basically if you don’t have a compelling reason not to be working, you have to work for your welfare check). I overheard a discussion between two such people where one insisted that making her work for her money was violating her civil rights.
Whataya know, my civil rights have been violated all these decades by people who insisted I work for my paycheck.
Not big profitable. There are only so many slots for Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons. The new victimhood of sexuali depravity- er, diversity, has much more headroom for more people.