"A Brief for Whitey" - Buchanan on Obama

[Etta Place]

Pat sounds a bit one-sided here, and a little racist himself. In his speech, Obama did address the white man's anger as well. Pat's not giving Obama any slack whatsoever. I hope he's as hard on McCain.

Pat Buchanan
A Brief for Whitey


How would he pull it off? I wondered.

How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?

How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"

My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.

Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."

But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.

Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.

The "white community," said Barack, must start "acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... ."

And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?

The "white community" must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with "ladders of opportunity" that were "unavailable" to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations.

What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure?

Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."

Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said — that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Barack talks about new "ladders of opportunity" for blacks.

Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for "deserving" white kids.

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

To find out more about Patrick Buchanan, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at Creators Syndicate - Celebrating 20 Years as a World-Class Syndicate Of Talent.

A Brief for Whitey by Pat Buchanan on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

[AZXD]

Sorry Etta, I might read it later. But with a title like that, I don't think it deserves recognition.

ETA: Nothing against you, it was not your title!!

[Etta Place]

Originally Posted by AZXD

Sorry Etta, I might read it later. But with a title like that, I don't think it deserves recognition.

ETA: Nothing against you, it was not your title!!

Yeah, I don't like the title either, and I don't know why Buchanan would choose that title.

[tbhahn]

The title seems to be playing off the ideas in some of Wright's sermons..."us" and "them". Granted, Mr. Buchanan is not exactly the paragon of inspiration when it comes to uniting people of dissimilar views and background. I think Pat makes some damn good points. Dialogue works both ways in the sense that it can't be one group demanding something of another group...there has to be some give and take on both sides to a degree.

I do disagree with Buchanan when he speaks of the government handout programs being helpful and beneficial to blacks. I believe that any long-term handouts like the ones listed are not in the long run beneficial to any group because they seem (from my observations, at least) to erode one's capability for self reliance by lulling recipients into a state of complacency with their current situation instead of using their situation as a motivating factor to strive and achieve more. Just my 2 cents...not saying I am right but that is my take on the matter.

[FrankRizzoXD40]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

Pat sounds a bit one-sided here, and a little racist himself.

What is "racist" about this article

Frank

[XDConvert9mm]

Originally Posted by FrankRizzoXD40

What is "racist" about this article

Frank

The author happens to be White. That's all I can find that could potentially be racist.

Bill Cosby had said very similar things and never been called a racist. He did create a furor in the community though.

[Etta Place]

Originally Posted by FrankRizzoXD40

What is "racist" about this article

Frank

I agree with much of what Pat says, both here and in his magazine to which I subscribe. There's just statements where he sounds a little over the top, if not racist, too blunt or insensitive.

These two parts are questionable:

Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.

And his use of the term "folks" seems a tad condescending.

[Etta Place]

He has the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

[FrankRizzoXD40]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

I agree with much of what Pat says, both here and in his magazine to which I subscribe. There's just statements where he sounds a little over the top, if not racist, too blunt or insensitive.

These two parts are questionable:

Quote:
Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."
Quote:
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.

And his use of the term "folks" seems a tad condescending.

I still don't see anything racist. He was pointing out that certain african american leaders have been hustling people into believing that white people are to blame for the problems of the black community.

Regarding the 2nd quote you posted, we have done those things. Affirmative action and quotes do exist, in schools and the workplace.

How is saying "white-folks" condescending?

I think you are reading too far into these statements. If he used a racial slur or implied that someone should get preferential treatment due to the color of his/her skin, then I would agree with you.

Frank

[FrankRizzoXD40]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

He has the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

lol--that's the only way to write these days! In the world where we have such a short attention span and are obsessed with soundbites, you've got to get your point across or it will fall upon deaf ears.

Frank