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| Jamie Fox at the BET Awards |
By Alan Caruba
© Alan Caruba, 2013
White people have largely made their peace with the changes that were initiated with the Civil Rights Act that Lyndon B. Johnson signed in 1964 in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. The Jim Crow era that included segregated schools and other indignities is long gone, but it took a hundred years past the Civil War to reach that point.
Race has always been a factor in American life dating back to the importation of the first slaves to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. One of America’s leading historians, Thomas Fleming recently had a new book published, “A Disease in the Public Mind: Why We Fought the Civil War”, that recounts the problems the Founding Father’s encountered as they sought to fashion the Constitution in 1787. The issue of slavery was an obstacle and, as the Founders feared, it led to the Civil War.
In the years immediately preceding the war, the calls for the abolition of slavery increased at the same time white southerners had spent decades gripped with growing fears of being killed by the slaves who vastly outnumbered them. There were approximately 4,000,000 slaves, mostly in the south, and some 500,000 free blacks, generally in the north. They were a substantial part of the population, but it is little known that only six percent of the southern white population, approximately 316,632, owned slaves. It is even less known that some free blacks owned slaves as well.
Fleming asked “Why did they (the southerners) sacrifice over 300,000 of their sons to preserve an institution in which they apparently had no personal stake?” The answer, generally stated, was that, by 1861 the northern states passionately hated the southern states and vice versa. That was the disease in the public mind.
I cite this bit of history because I keep hearing the question “If Zimmerman is acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin, will there be race riots?” Like the southerners of old, whites, Hispanics and others today are concerned about black violence.
Taking 1964 as a starting point, there were seven race riots that year, three of them in my home state, with others in Philadelphia, Rochester, New York, and Chicago. The famed Watts riot occurred in 1965. Riots continued in 1966, 1967, and most actively in 125 cities in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They tapered off in the 1970s and 80s. There were five riots in the 1990s and, as the new millennium began there were riots in Cincinnati (2001), Toledo (2005), Los Angeles (2006), and in Oakland (2009).
In the week preceding July 4th, there were reports of black on white violence in Greensboro, Portland, Chicago and other cities around the nation
In 2011 I reviewed a book by Colin Flaherty, “’White Girl Bleed A Lot’—The Return of Race Riots to America.” Flaherty stated that “Race riots are back along with widespread racial crime and violence.” He documented these episodes, noting in particular that “local media and public officials are silent…this denies the obvious: America is the most race conscious society in the world. Few know about it (the violence). Fewer still are talking about it.”
In October the sixth edition of his book will be published by WND Books. When I asked him whether the fear of racial riots after the verdict in the Zimmerman trial is rendered were justified, Flaherty replied that “I have not noticed anyone saying if Zimmerman is acquitted there will NOT be a riot. It seems to be a given, especially since I documented at least a dozen examples of black mob violence following the Trayvon Martin episode.”
“So I cannot predict the future, but I know that cops all over the country will be ready for violence. There is so much black mob violence happening now without any specific precipitating event, it does not seem like a stretch to make sure the cops are ready for more.”
A visit to Flaherty’s website confirms his observations regarding violent attacks. Even the media is beginning to give them more coverage, but blacks are frequently referred to as “urban youths” and other euphemisms.
In a post on his site, “Trayvon, Jeantel and Critical Race Theory”, Flaherty examines the theory, initiated by Derrick Bell. “Critical Race Theory says racism is everywhere,” within the black community, says Flaherty, “And it is permanent. As for any gains made in the courts or in public or private life”, the theory holds that “they are an illusion. And serve White Supremacists who lead a life of White Privilege.”
Given that voters have twice elected a black President, the theory seems absurd, but it is useful to keep in mind that President Obama sat through twenty years of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racist sermons, the most famous, following 9/11, in which he said “God damn America.”
Following the shooting of Trayvon Martin, Obama said, he “would have looked like my son.” The trial is not going well for the prosecution at this writing and whites are wondering whether the President will say something to warn blacks against any rioting when the verdict comes in.
3 comments:
Obama will do nothing to appeal to
reason or calm black Americans in
the wake of a Zimmerman acquittal.
He is a "Community Organizer," that
is what he does. His entire reason
for being is to fan the flames of
racial tensions.
Oh, he will denounce the inner city
riots that occur in the aftermath,
but only after the damage is done.
White people don't dislike blacks because of color and we, for the most part, really do wish them well. The problem we have with them is that the majority refuse to take responsibility for themselves and utilize all of the options that have been given to them to improve themselves and their community. White people, and presumably affluent blacks, are really tired of being taxed to death to support the monstrous low class black and white entitlement machine.
It is far easier for the majority of these under achievers to strive for the absolute lowest levels of achievement (except in music and sports) and settle for a life of under achievement, drug abuse, crime, child abandonment and hatred of whites rather than to look up and outward toward individual destinies that will literally guarantee them success. Despite what their racist leaders say, the playing field is quite level but you won't confuse the black racists' chants with facts.
I have listened to quite a bit of the Zimmerman trial and I think that his actions were purely self defensive. Martin was a budding criminal and he was not the little skittles eating 13 year old sugar junkie kid that the black community and the MSM would like to have people believe. His attack on Zimmerman was probably unprovoked and it doesn't take any great imagination to look at Zimmerman and realize that either at the time of the attack or now, while dressed in a suit, that he was ever some kind of tough guy looking for a fight. Video evidence on Martin however shows that he was a violent kid and pretty much out of control.
I hope that the jury has the intelligence and the guts to rule this case as self defense and permit Zimmerman to move on with his life but I doubt that it will because this entire case has been racial from the start. Had this been a black on black event, we wouldn't even be aware that this "trial" was being conducted...."nothing to see here folks, just move on along...."
There seems to be much concern that if Zimmerman is acquitted that unhappy blacks, as if they were anything else, will riot. If some do riot, the events should become a project for the various national guard units and in the event of any extensions of those riots such as attacks on completely uninvolved white, black, Mexican or Asian people or their businesses, then violence should be met with violence. Most importantly, anyone faced with unfocused, angry and violent back lash should take whatever steps are necessary to protect themselves, their families and their property.
I remember when there was a major snow-storm in an East Coast city - all of these stores were wrecked except for one, that had 2 bodies in front of it from the owner protecting his possessions.
That is how I suggest all rioters be treated - like the useless trash that they are. Guaranteed to stop them in their tracks...
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