My wife and I recently saw \u201cTHE HELP.\u201d\u00a0 It is a terrific movie and a stark reminder of the racism in our not-too-distant past.\u00a0 One very interesting scene was when one of the most racist people in the story spots a pamphlet about the Mississippi race laws in her friend\u2019s purse.\u00a0 She warns her to be careful who sees that because: \u201cthere are real racists out there.\u201d\u00a0 It caused me to reflect on racism today.<\/p>\n
I think most people would agree that we have come a long way since Mississippi in, 1963.\u00a0 But sometimes I fear we have simply traded one form of racism for another, more subtle and, perhaps, more dangerous type.\u00a0 As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, \u201cwe should judge people not on the color of their skin, but the content of their character.\u201d \u00a0Dr. King didn\u2019t ask for preferential treatment, he asked for equal treatment.<\/p>\n
The people most likely to be accused of racism are Republicans and Tea Party members.\u00a0 I find that interesting when throughout history it was the Republican Party that fought against racism and it was the Democratic Party that was the party of racism.\u00a0 The following rant from Jeneane Garofalo is typical of the lies and distortions by the liberal left that are sadly left unchallenged by the main stream media:\u00a0<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2011\/09\/29\/janeane_garofalo_racist_republicans_support_herman_cain.html<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0When you think about it, calling people racist for supporting a black candidate is pretty astonishing, even for someone as off the wall as Garofalo.<\/p>\n \u00a0But regardless of the spin by the Democratic Party and the main stream media, the Republicans have the facts on their side.\u00a0 It is long past time to expose the racist past of the Democratic Party and the long history of Republicans standing up for civil rights against Democratic opposition.\u00a0 I really think Republicans should be demanding that the Democratic Party finally recognize its racist past and apologize.\u00a0 Democrats have no problem asking for everyone else to apologize, and we have a President who apologized for the entire country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Following is from the Republican Party Platform of 1956:<\/p>\n \u00a0The Republican Party accepts the decision of the U.S.. Supreme Court that racial discrimination in publicly supported schools must be progressively eliminated. We concur in the conclusion of the Supreme Court that its decision directing school desegregation should be accomplished with “all deliberate speed” locally through Federal District Courts. The implementation order of the Supreme Court recognizes the complex and acutely emotional problems created by its decision in certain sections of our country where racial patterns have been developed in accordance with prior and long-standing decisions of the same tribunal<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The Democratic Party Platform of 1956:<\/p>\n \u00a0Recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States relating to segregation in publicly supported schools and elsewhere have brought consequences of vast importance to our Nation as a whole and especially to communities directly affected.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Democrats \u201ctalked\u201d about racial equality, but in reality they caved to the Southern Democratic coalition that was deeply opposed to both civil rights and desegregation.\u00a0 While there were Northern Democrats, like Hubert Humphrey, who were civil rights champions, the party was dominated by Southern Democrats who were determined to keep segregation at all cost.<\/p>\n \u00a0It was Eisenhower who appointed Earl Warren Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and it was the Warren court that ended segregation in our public schools with the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision.\u00a0 It was Eisenhower who ordered Federal Troops into Little Rock Arkansas so nine black children could enroll in school.\u00a0 It was Eisenhower who signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which was voted against by Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.\u00a0 Both Kennedy and Johnson also criticized Eisenhower for ordering the 82nd<\/sup> Airborne into Arkansas.\u00a0 But if Eisenhower had not done that, the entire civil rights movement may have collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Civil rights legislation in this country was blocked by Southern Democrats, including party stars like Estes Kefauver and J William Fulbright.\u00a0 This is ignored by the main stream media that has helped perpetuate the myth that all of the racist Dixiecrat Democrats became Republicans after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.\u00a0 That, like much of the Democratic Party history with regard to racism, is a lie.\u00a0 Following are the Dixiecrats who remained in the Democratic Party after 1964:<\/p>\n \u00a0Orval Fabus<\/p>\n Benjamin Travis Laney<\/p>\n John Stennis<\/p>\n James Eastland<\/p>\n Allen Ellender<\/p>\n Russell Long<\/p>\n John Sparkman<\/p>\n John McClellan<\/p>\n Richard Russell<\/p>\n Herman Talmadge<\/p>\n George Wallace<\/p>\n Lester Maddox<\/p>\n John Rarick<\/p>\n Robert Byrd<\/p>\n Al Gore, Sr.<\/p>\n Bull Connor<\/p>\n Only two Dixiecrats switched to become Republicans, Strom Thurmond and Mills Godwin.\u00a0 Both of them had to renounce racism before the Republicans would take them.\u00a0 A lot of people assume Jesse Helms was a Dixiecrat, but he wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 He also didn\u2019t vote against the Civil Rights Act, as was claimed in the following article for CNN by Roland Martin:<\/p>\n http:\/\/articles.cnn.com\/2008-07-09\/politics\/roland.martin_1_helms-lester-maddox-african-americans?_s=PM:POLITICS<\/a><\/p>\n Jesse Helms wasn\u2019t even in the Senate in 1964.\u00a0 However, Martin got it dead on when he wrote the following:<\/p>\n But when you stand in opposition to a bill that would, for the first time, give African-Americans from border to border the constitutionally guaranteed right to cast a vote, then I refuse to call you a stand-up person for the rights of every man, woman and child.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n He just got the wrong political party.\u00a0 He failed to point out that every Senator who voted against the Civil Rights Act, with the lone exception of Barry Goldwater, was a Democrat.\u00a0 (To the best of my knowledge no one ever accused Goldwater of being a racist.\u00a0 His opposition was based on States rights.)<\/p>\n \u00a0The real question is did all those Southern Democrats suddenly morph into anti-racism freedom loving Americans?\u00a0 Or did they just change tactics?\u00a0 Democrats only accept African Americans who are liberal Democrats.\u00a0 Other African Americans, regardless of ability, are scorned.\u00a0 Compare the way Clarence Thomas was treated when he was appointed to the Supreme Court to the treatment given Obama\u2019s two extreme liberal appointments.\u00a0 Thomas\u2019s real crime was being black and being conservative.\u00a0 If he had been black and liberal, the main stream media would have been outraged at the way he was treated.<\/p>\n \u00a0Look at the disrespect for Collin Powell who has been called an Uncle Tom, and the main stream media indifference to Condoleezza Rice.\u00a0 Now add in the discounting of Herman Cain as a legitimate Presidential candidate.\u00a0 Whether you like him or not, Mr. Cain is a very serious person who was CEO of two major corporations.\u00a0 Yet he continues to be treated condescendingly by the main stream media.\u00a0 Ms. Garofalo accidently said it right when she said in the minds of the liberal left, supporting a conservative black candidate is the moral equivalent of racism.\u00a0 The message is clear.\u00a0 It is ok to be black, as long as you are a liberal Democrat.\u00a0 But if a black man dare raise his hand and say he is a conservative the wrath of hell will descend upon his head.\u00a0 African Americans are only accepted if they tow the party line like loyal sheep.<\/p>\n \u00a0Perhaps this is just me, but I have a theory about this.\u00a0 It is based somewhat on the following two (in)famous quotes from Lyndon B. Johnson.\u00a0 (Keep in mind that it was the United States Senate, when Johnson was majority leader, which blocked any attempt at passing civil rights legislation for several years):<\/p>\n \u00a0I\u2019ll have those (n word) voting Democratic for the next 200 years.\u201d LBJ on Air Force One<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong>“These Negroes, they\u2019re getting pretty uppity these days and that\u2019s a problem for us since they\u2019ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we\u2019ve got to do something about this, we\u2019ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.\u201d — LBJ<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0A lot of African-Americans view John Kennedy as a hero of the Civil Rights movement.\u00a0 But\u00a025 years after his death, Robert Kennedy In His Own Words<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, was released.\u00a0 This contained several interviews given by Robert Kennedy before he was assassinated.\u00a0 The following article illustrates some of the significant things said by Robert Kennedy that were totally ignored by the main stream media, by the Democratic Party and by African American leaders in general:<\/p>\n \u00a0http:\/\/educationforum.ipbhost.com\/index.php?showtopic=17550<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0The pattern is clear.\u00a0 Kennedy was more interested in politics that he was in civil rights. \u00a0He was more concerned about losing the support of Southern Democrats than he was about promoting civil rights.\u00a0 It is impossible to reconcile the actual words of Robert Kennedy and the myth of Kennedy being a civil rights champion. \u00a0When you combine these interviews with the recently released Jacki Kennedy tapes, the picture comes into focus.\u00a0 At best, John Kennedy was a reluctant \u201cJohnny Come Lately.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0We did have a President who deserves credit for bringing about fundamental change with regard to civil rights in this country.\u00a0 His name was Dwight D. Eisenhower.<\/p>\n \u00a0I don\u2019t think that the racists in the Democratic Partychanged their opinion of African Americans one iota.\u00a0 Idon’ t believe they got a religious conversion and I don\u2019t believe they dropped their racist outlook.\u00a0 They just changed strategies by implemented programs designed to keep African Americans satisfied and under control, while avoiding having to ever treat them as equals.\u00a0 Think about this.\u00a0 What has been the impact of Lyndon Johnson\u2019s Great Society?\u00a0 What has been the impact of his War on Poverty? \u00a0\u00a0The following chart shows the poverty levels in this country since 1969, allowing 4 years for the \u201cWar on Poverty\u201d to have full impact:<\/p>\n \u00a0Year\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Poverty Rate<\/p>\n 1969\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13.7%<\/p>\n 1979\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12.4%<\/p>\n 1989\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13.1%<\/p>\n 1996\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13.7%<\/p>\n 2000\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 11.3%<\/p>\n 2007\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12.5%<\/p>\n 2008\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 13.2%<\/p>\n 2009\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 14.3%<\/p>\n 2010\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 15.1%<\/p>\n \u00a0When you consider the billions of dollars spent on anti-poverty programs over the past 47 years, we really haven\u2019t made much progress.\u00a0 It is significant to note that poverty dropped after Bill Clinton reluctantly accepted welfare reform in 1996.\u00a0 It was also lower during the Bush administration than during the Clinton Administration.\u00a0 It has obviously shot up significantly since Obama was elected.\u00a0 Perhaps, instead of taking cheap shots at Republicans and the Tea Party for non-existent racism, it is time for African Americans to take a long hard look at real record of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n \u00a0African Americans have supported the Democratic Party by wide margins for decades.\u00a0 What have they gained, except for temporary hand-outs that did nothing to reduce the level of poverty, but did manage to destroy our economy?. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n When African American\u2019s supported Republicans they got an end to slavery, an end to segregation, civil rights legislation and a Federal government determined to enforce it.\u00a0 In spite of all the rhetoric, it was George Bush, not John F. Kennedy, not Lyndon Johnson, not Jimmy Carter and not Bill Clinton who appointed the first African American, Collin Powell to a major cabinet position.<\/p>\n \u00a0The Democratic Party was dragged kicking and screaming to the civil rights altar but they now try to claim all the credit for the legislation they had fought to the bitter end.\u00a0 Sadly, it worked.\u00a0 It is long past time for Republicans to set the record straight!\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My wife and I recently saw \u201cTHE HELP.\u201d\u00a0 It is a terrific movie and a stark reminder of the racism in our not-too-distant past.\u00a0 One very interesting scene was when one of the most racist people in the story spots … Continue reading