Welcome to July 4th, white people’s Juneteenth. Barbecue, fireworks, patriotism.
In my circle of Black friends (Black is now capitalized in the AP stylebook, another emotional, illogical PC decision, but no skin off my nose), some refuse to celebrate “White” Independence Day, while others celebrate with a passion.
Among those who won’t, they say something like Maybe YOU got Independence on July 4th, but I didn’t. They have a point.
Among those who do celebrate, the feeling goes, I am as American as you, maybe more, and you won’t keep me from the picnic table. They have a point.
This is the Fourth of July with an asterisk.
In this season of racial angst, the days of what the media calls “national reckoning,” how can I ignore the elephant in the room on the Fourth of July? I can’t.
The truth is, American Blacks are more prosperous and have more opportunity than any time in this nation’s history. Actually, world history.
In my lifetime, Jackie Robinson opened the door to all professional sports, not just baseball. America commissioned black astronauts (first one, West Philly’s Guion Bluford); we have Black mayors and police chiefs across America; Black university presidents; a Black U.S. president, and a couple of Black billionaires, with a B.
Anyone who denies that, denies unalterable facts.
The other truth is, we still have massive inequality between the races. That truth hurts. Anyone who denies that, denies unalterable facts.
Almost by any measure — income, education, net worth, health outcomes, incarceration rates — there is inequality.
Here is the paradox — things have never been better for some Blacks, while other Blacks are trapped in a cycle of poverty in violence-wracked neighborhoods where underperforming schools don’t educate and the typical student lives with a single parent — almost always Mom.
The question is what can we — white people — do about it?
Taking down Confederate statues — which is admirable — will not change a single black life.
What will? A decent job. How do you get that? A decent education.
There is no mystery to this. The magic bullet is a high school diploma, plus ambition.
Where does ambition come from? Encouragement. That’s where family, friends and peers come in.
All the Black people I know are successful — middle class or better — just like most white people I know. I don’t know any drug dealers, burglars, gang bangers, rapists, or murderers.
Both the successful Blacks and whites have fathers, friends, and peers. Kind of like the “village” Hillary Clinton once spoke of.
The Clintons liked talking about bridges. I wish I knew how to bridge the chasm between most white and most Black Americans, but I don’t. I do know some Black/white friendships have been strained.
I know equality won’t happen in my lifetime, because there is no magic wand.
Maybe in my childrens’ lifetimes, we will have a July 4th with no apologies, no recriminations, and no asterisks.
HAPPY FRIDAY !!!
Stu,
We can always count on you to hit the target – and usually, it’s the bull’s eye.
I can’t remember the author of an article published in a paper. He too, hit the nail on the head. It would seem that most people who care, know that there’s a huge problem. It’s more than 244 years old, and it’s not going away anytime soon. The author of that piece made statements, such as, the negro was brought here to be a slave. When they were freed, they were basically dumped by the side of the road. This is in comparison to just about everyone else that came here. Big difference being, they didn’t come by the thousands, in the bottom of a boat !
I have long held the belief (1960s) that the ghetto was invented as a means to making money. It is not only a prison for blacks. Look around here and other cities and tell me what you see. You, Stu, have acknowledged the obvious. Broken homes, low education, low esteem, etc. The fix is complicated, my friend. I do know people from the seedier side of life. I worked there, inspected there, and definitely behaved there. To get rid of ghettos, you must do a clean sweep ! No more drugs. No more hand outs. No more sleeping till noon. It’s called a hand up, as you know and we preach ! I have had people say to me, why should I take a job at minimum wage, when I can make that and more in a couple of hours. They further reason, that there is nothing else to exist – not live – for. If they should die in a gang war, drug war, or just because, it gets them out of the ghetto. Similar thoughts and words came from my black brothers that dropped out of Edison high school and went to VietNam – and didn’t come home. The dubious honor of having the most causalities in the U.S.A. – 64 ! sidebar: back in the ’60s & ’70s,a lot of military were southerners, both black and white. They served, not necessarily because they were patriotic. They served mostly because there was nothing for them back home. With little education, but a strong determination, they were welcomed into all branches of the military. Every “lifer” that I knew, had done well for himself and his family.
The entire government – Federal, State and city – must attack this war with everything that counts. Education, housing, jobs, mentors – everything. It will cost ! It will take time. It will work .
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL !!!
Tony
Not sure where you got your statistics about Vietnam Veterans, but the average Vet is the average American. http://www.uswardogs.org/vietnam-statistics/
Your words reflect the ideas of Ross Perot, sound great, but enforcement would be unconstitutional.
The “solution” is a century away, as people like you, who don’t know anyone from the ghettos, are slowly replaced by people who do have friends in the ghetto. As it become normal to cross the barrier between the ghetto and “normal” world. By making the ghetto not the default choice for overburdened folks. There is no magic switch to be flipped, time, lives lived without oppression will be the cure.
Blake,
As usual with me, I don’t make myself very clear. I am not impressed by that web site or any other site, be it government or not. ( more than 60,000 dead on our side – in country.
Look it up. Edison has the highest causality rate in America. Not all were drafted. As I said, some enlisted to escape the ghetto. You could attend the annual recognition that the survivors hold every year.
My solution is not one of force. It has to come from within, nurtured constantly from within, but supported and driven by government and business.
I don’t know where you get your misinformation, but if you want to take a ride with me someday, I’ll introduce you to the old (black mafia) and the young head.
Over the years, I worked with those in the ghetto and those that escaped. From my perspective, the only thing that changes in the different cities, is the names and the faces.
Tony
The government has tried and failed. I believe the solution must come from within the Black community.
I agree, Stu. But with help from the MSM.
No one makes more sense then the black conservative thinker, there is so many of them, yet the ‘Al Sharptons’ of the world get the spotlight! And who gives them credence? Our media!
In government, we need more Senators like Tim Scott from SC. Are there any in the House of Representatives? I can’t think of any, at the moment. A few, I suppose. And will the media give them a voice? Indeed, the solution is in the black community!
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Stu,
Enjoy the 4th!
I am reminded that for many years after the Civil War it was only Black Americans who celebrated the 4th of July in the American South.
Recently chatting with a Black immigrant, I was asked what was going on in the country. I replied that the Black Americans wanted their freedom, and good for them!
What to celebrate?
“…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, …”
Lincoln elaborated the aim:
” … that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Reasons to be patriotic! When we forget these ideals, we fall from grace.
H.G. Callaway
Here is a suggestion to the Black community: instead of holding up only Black athletes to be emulated, start highlighting successful Black businessmen and businesswomen, black lawyers and doctors, etc. Black youngsters have to know that there are successful careers in fields other than sports. Yes, LeBron and Shaq are terrific, as are all the wonderful Black football and baseball players, and so on. But damn few Blacks (or Whites, for that matter) have the talent and skills to reach success in the sports arena. Unfortunately, too many Blacks in power (the dreadful Al Sharpton leaps to mind) do not like successful Blacks, denigrating them as ‘Uncle Toms.’ When the Black Pride movement began (remember the movement?) I thought “At last! We’ll see successful business people like George Johnson and his wife, Joan, who founded Johnson Cosmetics.” Fuggedabout it!
I am glad you mentioned Jackie Robinson. To me he was the greatest black athlete ever.
At UCLA Robinson played football,basketball ,baseball and track.He was better in football and track than baseball.And he proved in the majors what a great baseball player he was.
Martin Luther King looked up to Jackie as a roll model.
I get a kick when some of todays best black athletes complain that they are multimillionaire slaves.How tough they have it.
You want tough..You go to Jackie Robinson. Very few of todays black athletes could have survived what Jackie went through.
And I want to salute 2 more black athletes who thrived in a much worse era. Joe Lewis and Jesse Owens.And finally the greatest athlete of all time—Wilt Chamberlain.
I would like to see the NFL stop playing the National Anthem.Let the millionaires kneel for the coin toss.
There would have been no Juneteenth, and no abolition, without the events that happened in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, as well as in 1788 when the constitution was ratified. Within 16 years of the ratification of the constitution, the Northeastern United States (including PA) became the first places *in the world* where slavery was prohibited by law. All abolition in the world (of black slaves, white slaves, Christian slaves, Muslim slaves, slaves of all kinds) owes a debt of gratitude to what happened here.
We should all celebrate the 4th of July. Heck, if you like Democracy, it doesn’t matter where you live in the world, you should celebrate it. The people in Hong Kong who are protesting are carrying American flags and singing the Star Spangled Banner for a reason. We aren’t perfect, but it was here in the 13 American colonies that a worldwide philosophical revolution was ignited. A revolution that toppled kings and princes, ended slavery, led to universal suffrage, and gave people the freedom they had sought for millennia. It wasn’t perfect. It didn’t happen all at once. But it all started with the high aspirations here, in Philadelphia, in 1776.
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Stu & Robert,
The way in which slavery was abolished in Massachusetts is particularly interesting. Referencing the Declaration of Independence, the Supreme court of the state simply refused to enforce the ownership of human beings. That is essentially the way in which it was kept out of Great Britain –although it was long practiced, of course, in the British colonies.
Once the U.S. and G.B. abolished the slave trade in 1808 (the earliest date allowed by the constitution), both navies took after the slave-trading ships. However slavery in the British Caribbean persisted, and the slave population there actually went into a decline. They were working people to death and were unable to replace the dead fast enough without the slave trade. The story gives some significance to Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration which included the protest that the king had forced slavery upon the colonies.
Caribbean plantation owners, often resident in London, had a good deal of influence in parliament. The “sugar islands” were like a gold mine for those few owners.
H.G. Callaway