@glitterbag,
You're Irish too ! Damn. (probably from Ulster)
I appreciate your views but would like to suggest another perspective, perhaps more attuned to the present situation.
A few months ago, in a club I frequent in San Francisco, I met a very amiable gentleman named Jason Reilly. He's a Black man, from Buffalo NY, a fellow at the Manhattan institute, an admirer of Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institute, and a fairly regular editorial commentator in a number of newspapers and journals.
He's also the author of a work entitled "Please Stop Helping Us ". or "How Liberal policies are hurting Black Americans". I was curious and found and read a copy of this work. While I don't think it tells the whole story, Reilly makes the very apt point that, many of the well-intended liberal policies adapted in the last 50 or so years to foster the social and economic rise of Black Americans, have had unintended, adverse effects on Black Family cultures, fatherhood, desire for education, and self-reliance. They instead subsidize and encourage dependency and the breakup of family structures and fatherhood among Black Americans
Ironically it was exactly the opposite qualities: i.e. strong family bonds, a drive for individual achievement, and an entrepreneurial spirit that fostered the assimilation of the hordes of Scandinavian, Irish, Jewish, Polish Asian, etc. (and more recently Haitian) immigrants in this country. In fact there is there is a growing, but largely invisible and unacknowledged segment of Black Americans who indeed embody these qualities, and who are rising socially and economically in the country. Others are, unfortunately facing the opposite incentives, and this is indeed a problem.
I recognize that the force and limitations applied to American Blacks in the era of Jim Crow effectively stopped the clock on this natural process of Black assimilation, and that some affirmative action was required to firmly end their action. Now we are left mostly with the adverse side effects of otherwise well intended programs to benefit them. I agree with Reilly that we need to let the natural process work, and reward instead the same qualities that enabled others to rise in our society and economy. Failing to do this hurts Blacks, impedes their progress, and deprives them of the recognition due from others for the achievements they earn. ( this is also an needed part of the process).
We are, all of us, made from the same human material and share the same human nature. Envy, resentment and indolence are as much a part of our shared human nature as are achievement, industry and a desire for self-reliance. That said, as Machiavelli wrote, "men are industrious often only out of necessity" .
I believe that all should be judged by their achievements and, as MLK aptly put it , by the contend of their characters.We do no favors for anyone by lowering the standards for achievement - it limits their success and denies them the recognition of others.
