This week I was appalled to see syndicated radio host Warren Ballentine throw an abhorrent racial slur at NPR and Fox News commentator Juan Williams on the O’Reilly Factor. I didn’t think either Williams or O’Reilly heard it because it trailed the end of Ballentine’s other remarks, however, the following evening Williams brought attention to it.
The statement, which Ballentine is apparently proud of, since he has boasted of it, is the worst kind of racism: an attack against one’s own people, in this case, a people who have struggled for three hundred years to escape the stigma of slavery.
It occurs to me that America now has two generations of people who have absolutely no idea what this country is about; I doubt the average citizen under forty—and I am speaking of citizen’s here—could pass a basic citizenship exam if required to do so.
That is shameful.
More importantly, our children are being subjected to the rantings of intellectual thugs who teach revisionist history and encourage, if not incite, mob-like behavior on our campuses, to the degree that a conservative opinion can no longer be expressed without being shouted down or worse. Anyone who does not share the political opinions of the Left in this country is no longer safe from the scurrilous defamation and insults Rush Limbaugh and Williams faced this week.
It has now extended to our homes and neighborhoods. We have become a nation of accusers. One is no longer free to express his or her opinion on anything to do with race without the threat of being labeled and publically humiliated or destroyed, this in a land that has always valued its Freedom of Speech above all others.
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, I wonder if you have any conception of the damage you do to this country when at the drop of a hat you are the first to cry “racism.” Or if you care. You, sirs, are charlatans and demigods, preying on the sensitivities of your race and the misguided sensibilities of others anxious to distance themselves from the perception of bigotry.
Administration after presidential administration has bent over backwards to accede to your demands trying to assuage a guilt that in your minds can never be forgiven.
Don Imus was immediately fired at Sharpton’s demand for making comments similar to those of Warren Ballentine. Will Ballentine’s employers do the same? I have serious doubts.
Sharpton was not fired or made to step down from his nonprofit after his 1991 statements in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. Deadly black riots broke out for three days after the demigod accused a Jewish cab driver of “the social accident of apartheid” when the cabbie’s car ran out of control and killed 7-year-old Gavin Cato. Sharpton went on to call Hasidic Jews “diamond merchants” (not a compliment in case you haven’t guessed) and challenged them to “pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house to settle the score.” His irresponsible and hateful statements certainly fanned the flames of that violence if not outright spawning it.
Jesse Jackson got off with tepid apologies for his 1984 “Hymietown” slur, and for saying, “See, Barack’s been talking down to black people … I want to cut his nuts off,” making a slur on Barack Obama’s ethnicity. Funny, I thought Barack was talking down to all of us.
Yet when the officers accused of beating Rodney King were found not guilty, George H.W. Bush turned his justice department loose to retry the officers.
President Bush was terribly wrong to do so, not because the jury was right, that is a matter of opinion. Bush was wrong because the Founders framed the double jeopardy laws (the Fifth Amendment) for the exact reason Bush circumvented them; to prevent the government from prosecuting someone until it gets the verdict it wants.
These are but two examples among thousands of white leadership stepping up to do the right thing when the appearance of racial injustice existed.
Remember the placard people used to keep in their businesses? WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE. Well, friend, we no longer have that right. Nor should we. It no longer exists because of justified civil rights legislation that prevents anyone from discrimination due to race, creed, color, gender—you name it.
Now I have questions.
When are the leaders in the African American community and the various organizations that claim to defend civil liberties going to call for an end to this insanity? When will you stand up and demand accountability for the irresponsible actions of leaders in your community. Why do you even have a community? A Congressional Black Caucus? A Miss Black USA? We are all Americans, for God sake, and not a handful of us are trying to hold you back from anything.
The NAACP has never, to my knowledge, spoken out in objection to any racist or racially tinged comment made by an African American against another race of people. It certainly has not demanded anyone’s ouster for making racist statements against whites. The same applies to myriad other government subsidized and privately funded organizations representing Black America.
This is intentional.
You jumped to Representative Cynthia McKinney’s defense when she assaulted a Capitol police officer. You knew the sister was out of line. Why did you do that? You stampeded to Damon “Football” Williams’ defense when he gleefully bashed in truck driver Reginald Denny’s head with a cinderblock during the 1992 L.A. riots. Williams drew a light sentence in the wake of your protests and then murdered a man when he got out of prison. Williams is now doing a 46-year jolt in Pelican Bay, and you should all be doing it with him.
It is time for Blacks in America to stand up and renounce the free ride they have been getting on their behavior, to demand their leadership to denounce it, and clean it up or shut up.
The survival of our nation, your nation, depends on it.
Left Coast Ledger 