A Cracker's View of Black America, Part 1
The Don Imus controversy has raised the issue of racism up a notch in the national debate. It's clear from watching the media coverage and listening to ordinary conversation, that there is frustration in the white community stemming from political correctness, hypocrisy, and the fear of being called racist if anyone speaks his/her mind. So now I am going to speak mine, and if it makes me racist, so be it.
My undergraduate degree is in Political Science. While attending Ohio State University, one of the courses in my curriculum was Urban Studies. I signed up for the course that suited my schedule, and walked into a lecture hall filled with 200 blacks, a black professor, and myself. Our first assignment was to write a paper stating how we would define the issue of racism in the United States. I cited Edward Banfield, a noted conservative political scientist, known for his book The Unheavenly City, Revisited. His thesis states that while racism in its purist form does exist in the US to a degree, for most people it is more an issue of economics and class rather than race. After reading my paper, the professor called me to the front of the lecture hall and told me that he was giving me an “A” for the class. Further, it would be to my benefit and physical welfare not to return to his class, ever. That is a true story.
My high school years were in the height of the civil rights movement. I had many long arguments with my Uncle, who had few, if any, good things to say about minorities. I was about as liberal as they came. Then I went to Ohio State. The Ohio Union was oftentimes taken over by militant afro’d haired blacks doing military drills in close step in the ballroom areas. They advocated the downfall of the United States government, carried knives, wore black uniforms, chanted racist slogans as they marched. And my view of racial issues changed, and changed quickly.
Several years ago we were visiting Washington, D.C., and got lost. The neighborhood we accidently drove into was all black. A black policeman in his patrol car pulled up next to us and motioned for me to roll my down my window. “What are you doing here?” he asked. I told him I was lost. He said it would be a good idea if I got out of the neighborhood, quickly, and he would escort us out. It was scary. I found myself in a similar situation in Cleveland a few years later. My wife and son were lying down on the seats of the car.
I have stopped visiting the local malls on Friday nights. Young black men dressed in hip hop clothes walk around in groups of 4 or more. Their sole goal appears to be to intimidate whites. That may or not be the case, but on the surface it sure looks like it. They are loud, abrasive, and use fairly offensive language. In front of a discount store one Friday night, I saw a gang of black girls get into a fist fight, and it was one of the most terrifying things you could imagine. All of them were screaming profanities at each other and at the local police trying to break them up. You couldn’t get into the store.
That was followed by a group of black girls getting into a fist fight in a local chain restaurant a few weeks later. They actually were standing on the tables hitting and MF’ing each other over a guy. They then jumped off the tables and ran through the restaurant before the cops and manager were able to move them into the parking lot.
The "Gangsta" rap mentality has spread across the racial divide to effect young adults of all races. But it is especially strong in the Black community where violence, profanity, vulgarity, and abuse of women has become almost a role model to be followed. It is glorified in the media: televsion, movies, and even the theater. Evidence of just how deep it has permeated our society can be found in the movie Hustle and Flow, which won the Academy Award for best song in 2005: It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, whose lyrics contain the words "nigger" and "ho", "bitch", "sh_", and "mf'er" throughout.
My high school years were in the height of the civil rights movement. I had many long arguments with my Uncle, who had few, if any, good things to say about minorities. I was about as liberal as they came. Then I went to Ohio State. The Ohio Union was oftentimes taken over by militant afro’d haired blacks doing military drills in close step in the ballroom areas. They advocated the downfall of the United States government, carried knives, wore black uniforms, chanted racist slogans as they marched. And my view of racial issues changed, and changed quickly.
Several years ago we were visiting Washington, D.C., and got lost. The neighborhood we accidently drove into was all black. A black policeman in his patrol car pulled up next to us and motioned for me to roll my down my window. “What are you doing here?” he asked. I told him I was lost. He said it would be a good idea if I got out of the neighborhood, quickly, and he would escort us out. It was scary. I found myself in a similar situation in Cleveland a few years later. My wife and son were lying down on the seats of the car.
I have stopped visiting the local malls on Friday nights. Young black men dressed in hip hop clothes walk around in groups of 4 or more. Their sole goal appears to be to intimidate whites. That may or not be the case, but on the surface it sure looks like it. They are loud, abrasive, and use fairly offensive language. In front of a discount store one Friday night, I saw a gang of black girls get into a fist fight, and it was one of the most terrifying things you could imagine. All of them were screaming profanities at each other and at the local police trying to break them up. You couldn’t get into the store.
That was followed by a group of black girls getting into a fist fight in a local chain restaurant a few weeks later. They actually were standing on the tables hitting and MF’ing each other over a guy. They then jumped off the tables and ran through the restaurant before the cops and manager were able to move them into the parking lot.
The "Gangsta" rap mentality has spread across the racial divide to effect young adults of all races. But it is especially strong in the Black community where violence, profanity, vulgarity, and abuse of women has become almost a role model to be followed. It is glorified in the media: televsion, movies, and even the theater. Evidence of just how deep it has permeated our society can be found in the movie Hustle and Flow, which won the Academy Award for best song in 2005: It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp, whose lyrics contain the words "nigger" and "ho", "bitch", "sh_", and "mf'er" throughout.
Finally, Jason Whitlock, a black columnist in USA today, stated in his April 11 column that of the 41 NFL players arrested in 2006, 39 of them were black. What does that mean?
Is this what black America is today? Or is this the black America propogated by the race mongers who make hundreds of millions of dollars off of dividing America rather than uniting it, along with politicians who use the racial divide for untold political benefit? (To be continued).
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