America's Race to the Bottom

I've checked my privilege, and it's doing quite nicely.  Thank you for asking.

That's the only legitimate American response to socialist indoctrination.

Now, let's have a serious discussion...


Yes, we still have racists in this country, but we also have laws, a populace full of goodwill, and a society where minorities become doctors, lawyers, politicians, pilots, CEOs, generals, even President.

I didn't grow up around minorities, but I served with all kinds of people during my military career, and it left me quite sanguine about race in America.  We all got along, and I learned that no group of people can be stereotyped.  Race is no better a predictor of brains, skill or success than is shoe size. 

Spend time with ordinary black people--not the leftwing lecturers--and you will learn that racism still exists in subtle ways.  While a black man can get an engineering degree and become a captain in the US Air Force, or design a sophisticated satellite system for a defense contractor, some store employees will still shadow him, and somewhere a hotel clerk will tell him and his caucasian wife that there is no vacancy even though the parking lot is mostly empty. 

Life hands out shit sandwiches, even to the successful, and if I had to guess, I'd say black people probably get more than their fair share.  For that reason, I admire my friends and fellow veterans who handled it with grace.  I don't know if I could.

Moving on to a civilian career, I worked in a very diverse group (every black man was married to a white woman, two white men married to black women, white men married to Hispanic women...) and nobody had any hangups.  Instead we frequently and shamelessly indulged in politically-incorrect humor.

So, I thought race relations were pretty hunky-dory here in the US, and I have to admit that the racial events of the Obama years have shocked me, even though two black coworkers predicted this is where we would be.

When Obama was first elected, two of the black men I work with (one liberal, one slightly conservative) predicted race relations would deteriorate.  Both cited the pathologies of the worse elements of blacks and whites: 

Aggrieved blacks who think America has been cheating them and therefore owes them everything because the Al Sharpton types and guilty white liberal enablers have been drumming that into them since they were children; and prejudiced whites who blame minorities for all our ills and who cannot stand to see a black man in the White House. 

They predicted that a black president would inflame and embolden these two groups, and that their flamboyant reactions would infect the rest of society, and I think they nailed it.

Having our first black president has been a golden opportunity tragically squandered.  Even though I did not vote for him, I prayed that he would be the president who could speak candidly to all sides and maybe vanquish some malevolent ghosts.

Two years left, so there is still time to pray.  Merry Christmas.