HOW MANY SLAVES DO YOU OWN? As you will recall, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Harvard professor who got arrested by Cambridge Police not too long ago. Fred Reed was a police reporter for one of the large Washington newspapers. He now writes a column which can be Googled ~ Fred on Everything. Fred published a weekly online column in which he got to say the things his editors would never, ever have let him write in the paper. His stuff is iconoclastic and various articles have probably offended everyone...regardless of political orientation. So, with the warning that This is definitely not politically correct, here comes Fred... The following is an essay regarding the failings of a system and a culture. Please note that he elegantly describes the mood of many Americans and he does so without prejudice. Slavery Reparations...........by Fred Reed! (This guy is good) On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. Its because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess hell send me a bill, huh? I feel like saying, Let me get this straight, Hank. Im slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I dont blame you. Id like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in justice. Ill give you a million dollars for every slave I own, and another million for every year you were a slave. Fair enough? But tell me, how many slaves do you suppose I have? In round numbers, I mean...say to the nearest dozen. And how long were you a slave? Oh. In other words, I owe you reparations for something that I didnt do and didnt happen to you. That makes sense. Like lug nuts on a birthday cake. Personally, I think you owe me reparations for things you didnt do and never happened to me. Ive never been coated in Dutch chocolate and thrown from the Eiffel Tower . Ill bet youve never done it to anyone. I want reparations. Kind of silly, isnt it? But if were going to talk about reparations, thats a street that runs in two directions. You want money from me for what some other whites did to some other blacks in another century? How about you guys paying whites reparations for current expenses caused by blacks? Not long ago blacks burned down half of Los Angeles , a city in my country. Cities are expensive, Hank. Build one sometime and youll see what I mean. Whites had to pay taxes to repair Los Angeles for you. You can send me a check. Now, yes, I know you burned LA because you didnt like the verdict in the trial of those police officers. Well, I didnt like the verdict in the Simpson trial. But I didnt burn my house and loot Korean grocers, or burn down a city. Over the years blacks have burned a lot of American cities: Newark , Detroit , Watts , on and on. Now add in the fantastic cost over the years of welfare in all its forms, the cost of all of those police calls people had to make, for cells and jails and security systems in department stores. I cant live in the capital city of my own country because of crime committed by blacks. Toss in the cultural cost of lowering standards in everything for the benefit of blacks. See what I mean? Now, Id view things differently if you said to me, Fred, blacks cant get anywhere in a modern country without education. We know that. We need better schools, smarter teachers, harder courses, books with smaller pictures and bigger words. Can you help us? Id say, Hallelujah! Hoo-ahh! Not just yes, but hell yes. Lets sell an aircraft carrier and get these folks some real schools and get them into the economic main-stream. Id say It partly because it would be the right thing to do, and partly because Id like to add you guys to the tax base. The current custodial state is expensive. Id just love for blacks to study and learn to compete and stop burning places.. But is it going to happen? You may not believe it, but I, and most whites, dont like seeing blacks as miserable and screwed up as they are. I spend a fair amount of time in the projects. Those places are ugly. Its no fun watching perfectly good kids turn into semi-literate dope dealers who barely speak English. It just plain aint right. But, Hank, what am I supposed to do about it? I cant do your childrens homework. At some point, people have to do things for themselves, or they dont get done. Maybe its time. Ill tell you what I see out in the world, Hank...I think blacks are too accustomed to getting anything they want by just demanding it. True, it has worked for over half a century. Get a few hundred people in the street, implicitly threaten to loot and burn, holler about slavery, and sadly the Great White Cash Spigot turns on. Thing is, whites dont much buy it any longer. Most recognize that what once was a civil-rights movement has become a shakedown game. Few people still feel responsible for the failings and inadequacies of blacks. Political correctness keeps the lid on -- but everyone knows the score...Which scares me, Hank. On one hand, blacks hate whites and incline toward looting and burning. The whites you hate are the ones who marched in the civil-rights movement. (Ever think about that?) On the other hand, whites quietly grow wearier and wearier of it. Not good, Hank. On the third hand (allow me three hands, for rhetorical convenience), blacks keep demanding things. As I write, you demand reparations for slavery. Blacks in Oklahoma (I think it was) want money for some ancient race riot. Other blacks reject the Declaration of Independence . Blacks in New York hint broadly at burning and looting over a trial, yet more demand the elimination of the Confederate flag, and the federal equal opportunity apparatus, which means blacks want to sue Silicon Valley for not hiring nonexistent black engineers. Thats a lot of demanding for one month, Hank. What happens if whites ever say, No? Now, how about you? Youve got a cushy job up there at Harvard, and you can hoot and holler about what swine and bandits whites are. I guess its lots of fun, and you get a salary for it to boot.. But dont you think you might do blacks more good if you told them to complain less and study more? For example, if you want blacks to work in Silicon Gulch, the best approach might be to find some really smart black guys, and get them to study digital design ~ not Black Studies (as you teach). Thats how everybody else does it. It works. Then blacks wouldnt feel left out, and racial tensions would decline. Sound like a plan? Just out of curiosity, how many hours a week do professors of Afro-American Studies spend in the projects, encouraging poor black kids to study real-life sho-nuf subjects?
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 19:50:16 +0000
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