“You have been selected to be a house slave at the plantation. Be ready on Saturday, November 9th, 11:00 a.m. sharp.“
Following the re-election of Donald Trump, African-American students in 25 states received text messages or emails informing them that yes, the party is over.
Apparently, Trump’s first priority as president will be ending African-American unemployment.
Before we go any further here, I really ought to say it’s highly unlikely that Trump or anyone connected with his campaign had anything to do with this acr of domestic terrorism.
No, not even Eric.
I’m not even sure there are any antebellum plantations left, let alone enough in 25 states to accommodate the influx of once and future slaves.
Should it come as a surprise to anyone that there is still a virulent strain of racism in this country?
President Lyndon Johnson described the motivation behind racism in the 1960s, telling people that if you told poor white people that at least they were better off than black people you could pit those two groups that ought to be allies against each other.
Racism must be the stupidest of all human characteristics. If it ever made sense, it would have been in ancient times when nations had very little knowledge of their neighbors. Just as no one wants to think of himself as the village idiot, no one wants to think of their particular race or ethnic group as life’s losers.
In fact, one of the weaker episodes of the original “Star Trek” may have been a little heavy handed in showing how ridiculous racism is. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” posited a civilization in which half the people were white on the left and black on the right and the other half is black on the left and white on the right.
I don’t think I’m being naive to believe that there has been progress — at least incrementally — on racism since I was born in 1949. But particularly economically, there is still a long way to go.
Genetically there is almost no significant difference between races. Apparent differences in talents or abilities are either environmental or learned behavior.
Some of the people who make a big deal out of racial issues are doing it for political gain, while others are just trying to raise a ruckus. If they are upsetting African-American children who may not realize slavery has been illegal for nearly 160 years, that doesn’t make them witty or cool.
It just makes them assholes.
Racist assholes.