Please note that these links do exist -- but
they're in the process of being shuffled around a little because of some
asshole making an issue of my web sites in court. If one doesn't work today
-- it will very soon. I'm guessing November 30, 2005!
For those of you
unfamiliar with Fred Reed, he's a police reporter for one of the large
Washington newspapers (pretty sure the Post). Anyway, Fred publishes
(published) a weekly online column in which he got to say the things his
editors would never, ever have let him write in the paper. His stuff is
iconoclastic and various articles have probably offended everyone regardless
of political orientation. So, with the warning that "This is definitely not
politically correct", here comes Fred.
The following is an essay regarding the failings of a system and a culture.
Please note that he elegantly describes the mood of many white Americans and
does so without prejudice.
Slavery Reparations ........by Fred Reed
On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American
Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks.
It's because of slavery, see. He is joined in
this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess he'll send
me a bill, huh? I feel like saying, Let me get this straight, Hank. I'm
slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I don't
blame you. I'd like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in justice.
I'll give you a million dollars for every slave I own, and another million
for every year you were a slave.
Fair enough? But tell me, how many slaves do you suppose I have? In round
numbers, I mean. Say to the nearest dozen. And how long were you a slave?
Oh. In other words, I owe you reparations for something that I didn't do and
didn't happen to you. That makes sense. Like lug nuts on a birthday cake.
Personally, I think you owe me reparations for things you didn't do and
never happened to me. I've never been coated in Dutch chocolate and thrown
from the Eiffel Tower. I'll bet you've never done it to anyone. I want
reparations.
Kinda silly, isn't it?
But if we're going to talk about reparations, that's a street that runs in
two directions. You want money from me for what some other whites did to
some other blacks in another century. How about you guys paying whites
reparations for current expenses caused by blacks? Not long ago blacks
burned down half of Los Angeles, a city in my country. Cities are expensive,
Hank. Build one sometime and you'll see what I mean. Whites had to pay taxes
to repair Los Angeles for
you. You can send me a check.
Now, yes, I know you burned LA because you didn't like the verdict in the
trial of those police officers. Well, I didn't like the verdict in the
Simpson trial. But I didn't burn my house and loot Korean grocers. Over the
years blacks have burned a lot of American cities: Newark, Detroit, Watts,
on and on. Now add in the fantastic cost over the years of welfare in all
its forms, of large police forces and jails and security systems in
department stores. I can't live in the capital city of my own country
because of crime committed by blacks. Toss in the cultural cost of lowering
standards in everything for the benefit of blacks. See what I mean?
Now, I'd view things differently if you said, "Fred, blacks can't get
anywhere in a modern country without education. We know that. We need better
schools, smarter teachers, harder courses, books with smaller pictures and
bigger words. Can you help us?" I'd say, "Hallelujah! Hoo-ahh! Not just yes,
but hell yes. I'd say it partly because it would be the right thing to do,
and partly, because I'd like to add you guys to the tax base. The current
custodial state is expensive. I'd just love for blacks to study and learn to
compete and stop burning places.
But is it going to happen?
You may not believe it, but I, and most whites, don't like seeing blacks as
miserable and screwed up as they are. I spend a fair amount of time in the
projects. Those places are ugly. It's no fun watching perfectly good kids
turn into semiliterate dope dealers who barely speak English. It just plain
ain't right. But, Hank, what am I supposed to do about it? I can't do your
children's homework. At some point, people have to do things for themselves,
or they don't get done.
Maybe it's time.
I'll tell you what I see out in the world, Hank. I think blacks are too
accustomed to getting anything they want by just demanding it. True, it has
worked for over half a century. Get a few hundred people in the street,
implicitly threaten to loot and burn, holler about slavery, and the Great
White Cash Spigot turns on.
Thing is, whites don't much buy it any longer. Most recognize that what once
was a civil-rights movement has become a shakedown game. Few people still
feel responsible for the failings and inadequacies of blacks. Political
correctness keeps the lid on -- but everyone knows the score.
Which scares me, Hank. On one hand, blacks hate whites and incline toward
looting and burning. (The whites you hate are the ones who marched in the
civil-rights movement. Ever think about that?)
On the other hand, whites quietly grow wearier and wearier of it. Not good.
On the third hand (allow me three hands, for rhetorical convenience), blacks
keep demanding things. As I write, you demand reparations for slavery.
Blacks in Oklahoma (I think it was) want money for some ancient race riot.
Other blacks reject the Declaration of Independence, blacks in
New York hint broadly at burning and looting over a trial, yet more demand
the elimination of the Confederate flag, and the federal equal opportunity
apparatus, which means blacks, wants to sue Silicon Valley for not hiring
non-existent black engineers.
That's a lot of demanding for one month, Hank. What happens if whites ever
say, "No"?
Now, how about you? You've got a cushy job up there at Harvard, and you can
hoot and holler about what swine and bandits whites are. I guess it's lots
of fun, and you get a salary for it. But don't you think you might do blacks
more good if you told them to complain less and study more?
For example, if you want blacks to work in Silicon Gulch, the best approach
might be to find some really smart black guys, and get them to study digital
design, not Black Studies.
That's how everybody else does it. It works. Then blacks wouldn't feel left
out, and racial tension would decline. Sound like a plan? Just out of
curiosity, how many hours a week do professors of Afro-American Studies
spend in the projects, encouraging poor black kids to study real life
subjects?.
