Affirmative action is supposed to overcome centuries of oppression
There was yet another letter to the editor in Sunday’s paper from someone, undoubtedly a white person who has never been really discriminated against, complaining about affirmative action because it is discriminatory.
Well of course it’s discriminatory. It’s designed to overcome the effects of over 350 years of discrimination based simply on skin color. It’s called swinging the pendulum back the other way. It could also be called payback which is as they say an uncomfortable experience.
It’s payback for 250 years of slavery. It’s payback for masters being able to beat their slaves whenever they felt like it, rape the women whenever they felt like it, give the women to a friend for his pleasure whenever they felt like it, sell a slave whenever he needed a few extra dollars, and finally for a master being able to murder any slave at any time for any reason and the only punishment he might be subjected to would be to pay his victim’s master the slave’s market value.
It’s also payback for 100 years of denying blacks their rights, rights that were guaranteed by three different constitutional amendments and at least one federal law . Most of the rest of the world called them human rights, something that our country was supposedly founded on. We called it segregation while the South Africans called it apartheid. And, in the height of hypocrisy, we cursed the Communist bloc for denying their citizens these same rights.
It’s payback for whites being able to murder blacks with absolute impunity for such heinous crimes as whistling at a white woman.
It’s payback for whites taking blacks out of jail, without resistance from the authorities, and stringing them up and setting them on fire because they were accused of a crime against a white person.
It’s payback for blacks being beaten or murdered for having the audacity to demand their rights like eating at a public lunch counter, taking the bus, drinking out of a public water fountain, or not standing aside for a white person.
And for all of those who are mumbling to themselves about me being yet another black person who thinks they deserve better treatment than whites because of something that happened a long time ago, well I’m not. I’m white and my family has been in this country since before it was a country and we’ve served in almost every war from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm. I enlisted in 1966, which is more than many of our current crop of leaders can say. The point is that I have every right to preach about what this country should stand for and what we should do to make up for past wrongs.
So if you’re willing to pay outrageous gas prices for the privilege of driving your SUV or minivan, and ridiculous heating bills for the privilege of owning a McMansion, then don’t complain about having to pay the price for your country’s, no, your ancestor’s immoral deeds. And before you complain that nobody in your family every owned a slave or you never discriminated against a black person, think about this - can you honestly say that you or your family never benefited from this country’s racist past, from not having to compete on a level playing field?
John A. Joseph
St. Louis
Mr. Joseph, how dare you. Do you not mention the hundreds of thousands of WHITE civl war soldiers that fought and died
to free slaves.
And not mention the great white presidents of the US that put their reelections on the line to speak out against slavery. And the many US ships like the US Constitution that left their families in America to patrol 2500 miles of African shorline to intercept slave trade ships. My great grandfather came home from the civil war (union army) permanently wounded so you could be free. Did you ever bother to look at the Islam/Black Slavery connections; yet black parents name their kids Mohammad (a pedophile), Jamal..etc…and that the young black males are the biggest fastest growing Muslims recruits in the world. You all have come a long from the sixities and you have white conservatives compassionate politicians to thank for it. How ungrateful.
Why don’t you denounce the money grubbing gods like, Jesse Jackson (the adulterer), Al Sharpton, NAACP elite, nappy headed ho rappers, the draft dodging coward Mohammad Ali(Cassias Clay), Black Caucus.etc.. to name a few. Facts: Hispanics commit more violence against blacks and blacks against blacks. Of course fear stops you from speaking out, you might sound too white in the black community.
Get over it and stop stirring up your racist hate. I worked for the government where 95% of the workforce was black. Every time I contact a federal, state or local government agency, a black person answers the phone.
I am a born again Christian; I just wonder if I could start a racist war against the Italians (Roman Empire) for cruxifying Jesus and the disciples or throwing them in the lions den. And I don’t see the Jews discriminating against the Germans today for what they did in the holocaust. The Jews went back to Israel worked their nation and land from a desert wasteland into a virtual garden to make it one of the greatest nations on earth.
Ann S.,
One of the obvious problems with Americans is ignorance about your own history. How is it that you do not even know your own history?
Why is it that you think that the Civil War soldiers fought to free Black slaves? So wrong you are.
Slaves were offered freedom for two sole purposes only and hey were:
1. To weaken the South’s economic state. (Kind of like Ben Laden planned and is accomplishing here in the United States).
2. To strengthen the North’s army, (man power). The North offered slaves freedom in exchange for rebelling against the South, their oppressors and fighting own their side. In addition each male head of a family were offered 40 acres of land for their services.
But, fitting very well with the rest of America’s ugly past, Black were distributed this land only for a short while and the agreement was recinded, the land taken back.
Just another of America’s evil truths concerning Blacks in this country.
Ann S., as one proclaiming to be a born again Christian, you should seriously look into locating someone familiar and experienced in deliverance. I don’t doubt that you desire to be a Christian, but it is apparent that you are tormented by evil spirits.
I have only been posting here for a few months, but one of the things I have noticed is that there really IS a “Liberal Fascism” when it comes to the discussion of race. If you are black, hispanic, or a white liberal, you can pretty well get by with saying just about anything. You can have a “Black Values Statement” for your church and that is just fine with everybody. If it is discovered you belong to church that has a “White Values Statement,” your political career would be over.
Blacks can use the “N” word, the “B” word, or whatever word they want, but if a white uses them, his career is done.
If you criticize Barack Obama, or illegal immigration, you are a racist. You aren’t supposed to notice that Canadians aren’t pouring over their border by the millions. You aren’t supposed to notice that Mexicans are colonizing all of our southwest and will add fifty million to our population in the next couple decades. If you acknowledge that, you are “anti-hispanic.” It is a silly game of political correctness, pushed on us by leftist academia, the media, the Democratic Party machine, hustlers like Sharpton and Jackson and the motley bunch of holier than thou liberal crusaders like the ones posting here. They don’t really want honest discussion of race. It might hurt. They want to have their say and they want a muzzle on everyone else.
Happy Pants:
Is there anything negative or wrong with the below church’s mission statement? well its the mission statement of Trinity United Church of Christ which you have so wrongfully judged. Do people such as you ever check out things for yourselves or do you just prefer being as trusting as sheep, trusting whatever is put out there?
Mission
Mission Statement: What Trinity Is About
Trinity United Church of Christ has been called by God to be a congregation that is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that does not apologize for its African roots! As a congregation of baptized believers, we are called to be agents of liberation not only for the oppressed, but for all of God’s family. We, as a church family, acknowledge, that we will, building on this affirmation of “who we are” and “whose we are,” call men, women, boys and girls to the liberating love of Jesus Christ, inviting them to become a part of the church universal, responding to Jesus’ command that we go into all the world and make disciples!
We are called out to be “a chosen people” that pays no attention to socio-economic or educational backgrounds. We are made up of the highly educated and the uneducated. Our congregation is a combination of the haves and the have-nots; the economically disadvantaged, the under-class, the unemployed and the employable.
The fortunate who are among us combine forces with the less fortunate to become agents of change for God who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!
W.E.B. DuBois indicated that the problem in the 20th century was going to be the problem of the color line. He was absolutely correct. Our job as servants of God is to address that problem and eradicate it in the name of Him who came for the whole world by calling all men, women, boys and girls to Christ.
I’m with #23, Mr. Walker - you need to be evaluated by a trained professional. It’s not healthy to harbor that many delusions and that much hate.
I think the best statement was made by Logus in #22. Short - but it speaks volumes. Slavery was wrong. Affirmative action is wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Before you Christians get too carried away by your righteousness you need to do some historical research. Start with the crusades of the middle ages. Follow with the Spanish inquisitions and the Salem witch trials. Finish up with sanctioned pedophiles in the priesthood or the fire and brimstone abuse of innocent children by fanatic Christian parents.
Then come back and tell the non Christians about the devil. OK?
D. Walker,
I referrenced the United Trinity Church’s “Black VALUES Statement” and you came back asking if I ever “really checked out” their “Black MISSION Statement.” Nice try.
48. Happy Pants,
Under #45, I asked you if you have ever:
1. checked out the MISSION STATEMENT for yourself, not Black Mission Statement.
I also asked you:
2. based on that church’s mission statement, if you found anything negative or wrong with it?
What sense are you making by stating, nice try?
Now, show us all that you do have the basic intelligence of human and try answering the question. Please…..
#47, It is foolish to reject Christ because of people who behave as the Pharisees (hypocrites)as shown to us in the Holy Scriptures and sometimes even worst.
Through staudy of the Scriptures you will learn why there is such evil in our world.
Through study of the Scriptures you would understand know that there are false teachers posing as wise Christian leaders who lead people astray.
If you were familiar and knowledgable of the Holy Scriptures, such evil behavior would not be mind boggling or suprising to you because it is part of man’s evil nature and the influence of Satan in our world.
To go further on the subject would require going into the role of Satan on in this world who is always on the prowl to corrupt and tempt man and all things of God.
You would understand that people who start out with good intentions in following after Christ are at greater risk at becoming corrupted because these are the ones that Satan place alot of energy into taunting because these are the ones that he wants to destroy, these are the ones who do not behave as his tools, but have good intention and genuine desires to follow Christ and do good things on this earth and by other people. Then one day this one does something so destructive and evil that is so totally out of character for that person.
You would also know that just because one proclaim that they follow God/Christ is not necessarily so.
You would learn through study that some of the ones who claim to be Christians are imposters (truly evil people), children of the spiritual devil.
You would understand that you and no one else is responsible for you knowing what God’s word, instructs and the teachings of Christ. Ignorance is no excuse when it is freely available to you.
You and no one else is responsible for your salvation. You that personal responsibility thing that is talked about so much concerning other things?
#46, Nom de Plume. Perfect example of how Satan distort things and uses people as his tools. Or, maybe I am incorrect about you distorting things. Would you please point out to me how anything that I have written are delusions and hate.
D. Walker,
I must be crazy myself to even bother responding to your post. You have yet to make any arguments much less a logical one. The topic is whether giving special treatment to certain races or ethnic groups is moral and logical.
Most of the various posts make the case for or against the preferences and state the reasons for the opinions given. You have yet to state anything vaguely resembling a logic thought on racial preferences. You have merely laid out a bunch of random biblical references and labeled various other posters as evil. To most sane people, this constitutes being severely delusional.
The anger you express in labeling so many people as evil makes me uneasy regarding your mental state. Your comments closely match many who have gone off the deep end. This is why I have questions regarding your mental stability and suggested you get check out by someone qualified to evaluate your mental state.