Buchanan to Black Folks: "Where's the Love?"

Pat Buchanan is at it again.... This time, he's reminding Black Americans how lucky they are to be in America:

In a March 21 post on his website, Buchanan is attempting to respond to Sen. Obama's landmark race speech. In wondering aloud how Sen. Obama would respond to the Rev. Wright controversy, Buchanan tears into the Senator's strategy:

"Its 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.”

That's just a warm up... it gets better. The post goes on:

"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...

"...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..."

Are you SERIOUS???!!!!

While no one will argue against America's greatness (I for one am going nowhere!!!), its galling that Buchanan thinks that African Americans still have not demonstrated enough "gratitude" for the privilege of being treated like second-class citizens for the vast majority of their presence in America. More gratitude for subsistence programs? More gratitude for programs instead of real opportunity? Please.

He then goes on to suggest that the "Silent Majority" (read: Angry white people) needs to be heard, and that they are angry that Blacks do not acknowledge that America has been good to them and that White Americans have bent over backwards for Black people to make up for past injustices.

Finally, he hits on two platinum issues of racial fear: Reverse discrimination and Black on white crime.

Buchanan didn't get it when he worked for Nixon, and today he still does not get it. Black people are proud to be Americans -- they just want to be treated as full citizens. Black people have demonstrated "gratitude" by serving faithfully and honorably in every armed conflict involving the United States; by demonstrating grace and pride in the face of hatred, anger and bigotry; by advancing within systems that did not want them, excelling and advancing the cause of inclusion for Blacks and others who seek that which every American is entitled: The opportunity to achieve the American Dream.

Anger and pain are evident (and real) on both sides. However, insulting Blacks by insinuating they should be more appreciative for what they've "received" is dishonest at best, inflammatory at worst and threaten to entrench further the misunderstanding and mistrust between the races.

Buchanan blasts Rev. Wright as a bigot and a racist, someone unfit to occupy a space in the public square as a so-called leader.

If Buchanan does not see his comments in the same light, then he is the one who is obtuse.

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I will agree with you on the fact that Pat Buchanan is wrong on many items.

First of all, the “600,000” blacks he talks about, who came here as slaves did not ask to come. I won’t even mention the millions who died on the trans Atlantic voyage to the new world. Not much to be grateful for here…

Secondly, 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…” were not designed to help blacks. As a matter of fact, most of those on these programs were white. And as far as welfare specifically, it became nothing more than a generational curse on the black community. Sorry, nothing here to be grateful for either.

The truth is that at our inception we committed a great sin by not abolishing slavery. The price for that sin was the blood of over 500,000 American boys during the civil war, most of them white. But our stupidity did not stop there. Because we did not learn our lesson; we chose to continue treating an entire race of people as less than human for 100 more years through Jim Crowe laws, lynching and voter intimidation. That equates to over 400 years of oppression against black folks. A few handout programs over a couple of decades that benefited whites more than blacks does not make up for that.

The truth is that nothing will. No program, no reparation, no apology will ever make up for what has happened to those brought to this country in chains. But that does not mean that we cannot overcome it. As a matter of fact, we already have in many ways.

I am a part of the first generation to grow up after the passage of the 1964 civil rights act. I grew up equal under the law. I was not told that I could not use the same bathroom, drink from the same fountain, eat at the same restaurant or go to the same school as whites. This is not to say that the playing field is completely level. But to say that we are still being treated like second class citizens is a major overstatement.

Do you deny that black Americans are the most educated, prosperous and free of all peoples of African decent? You can’t, because we are!

Do you deny the statistics quoted by Buchanan on black on white crime?

“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?”

You can’t because they are true. And Buchanan doesn’t even get into the statistics on white-on-black crime vs. black-on-black crime.

I believe Pat Buchanan to be full of himself and on many issues his perspective is stupid at best, racist at worst. But there are times when he does make good points. And he is right when he points out that liberal black leaders spend far too much time blaming “Whitey” for what ails black Americans and not enough time talking about the opportunities available for blacks today that have not been there in the past. They should focus a little more on the blessings of being black in America, rather than always pointing out the curses.