“The word ‘racism’ is like ketchup. It can be put on practically anything.”

— Thomas Sowell

The Problem

Events in Ferguson, Mo., reveal America’s growing dedication to racism as permanent public policy. 

That mission rests firmly in the deceptive grip of the same Democratic Party once backing slavery and segregation. Though their methods have changed, misanthropic dedications continue – exploitation remains a seedy and effective path to power.

The Reality

It’s been decades since we’ve embraced honest dialogue on race. The on-going farcicalities kidnap energy and unification sorely missed in a hazardous world.

This mischief tracks to apathy. Echoing the familiar is easier than thinking. Ferguson mobs and wannabe thrill-seekers conveniently embraced assumptions of a young black man’s innocence and the guilt of a white officer. That facts offered reverse testimony didn’t matter to those anxious to rage as an alternative to fixing the mess they helped create. Michael Brown was killed as surely by a corrupted culture as a bullet.   

During the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, blacks in America were dramatically succeeding toward economic and social parity. Progress abruptly ended with the ‘60s and a liberal-led public policy model dedicated to dependency and entitlement over autonomy and accountability.

Through almost universal black loyalties, the Democratic Party has blossomed. That relationship has not been reciprocal and the slide has paradoxically accelerated under a twice-elected black Democrat president.

A black culture increasingly defined by anger, misogyny and hip-hop thuggery seems startled by push-back. It’s deserved – some of this country’s most vocal racists are black Americans seeking to even the score with their own brand of bigotry.

Racial Absurdities

Twenty-first century America should discard organizations defined by race. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Congressional Black Caucus and Black Panthers stand as monuments to man’s enthusiasm for habit over achievement. These folks are racists, don’t know it, and are thus strangled by a damning truism – you can’t achieve equality by practicing inequality.

For an authentic ideal of equivalence through independent action, consider immigrants and descendants from Asia. During our nation’s railroad boom livestock were treated with greater care than Chinese migrant workers.

As recently as WWII, Japanese Americans were interned – a fancy word for imprisoned – through arbitrary institutional racist policies implemented by, again the irony, a Democratic president.

Out of our political adventurism in Southeast Asia by still another Democrat came thousands of refugees landing with nothing. In each case, hard work, family unity and personal grit grounded dramatic recovery. Equality resulted as a byproduct of action, not complaint or the pretend benevolence of political power brokers. 

Black Americans are killed out of proportion to their numbers because they commit crimes out proportion to their numbers. Paradoxically, 100 people a year die at the hand of a law enforcement system that each year loses a similar number of its own. Both these figures shrink in comparison to 6,000 black-on-black murders.

There are reasons clerically cloaked race hustlers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton continue to enjoy the limelight. Like the entitlement thinking they advocate, folly dies a reluctant death. Absorbing Michael Brown’s stepdad yelling, “Burn This Bitch Down,” and Louis Farrakhan declaration, “We’ll Tear This G**Damn Country Up,” offer a brain scan on how hardheads roll downhill. Hammering on color is like masturbation, it may feel good, but it’s not productive. To do true good you have to look up, breath deep and climb.  

A Course in Racial Reason

Any man who judges another by color is a fool – any man who fails to measure others per their choices, culture and character – likewise. In that simple equation we find explanation for the zombie-like persistency of racism.

We have no control over birthed color. How unfair it is to artificially label anyone whose skin differs from our own. More than we realize, negative reactions commonly assigned to color find firmer traction elsewhere.

We’re in charge of our choices, cultural dedications and character. America’s black ethos has been so obsessed with getting others to play nice with color that these accountabilities have been broadly displaced.   

Solutions

Police are charged to keep the peace and respond to aggression, not to diagnose motivations. Anyone not wishing to be harmed by an armed officer would do well to reconsider violence as a path to empowerment. Protesting voices have been notably indifferent to “be cool” as a risk antidote.  

If you’re white and find yourself reacting negatively to people of color, take a maturity pill and think about why. I have a personal resistance to anyone who chooses to live off the labors of others; advocate dysfunctional social models (spoiler alert – men may be created equal, but cultures certainly aren’t); or fuel their identity through greed, violence or other evils. Those are matters of choice, culture and character that I remain free to assess as good or bad. To reject others based on color would mark my own bad.

If you’re black, rethink your enthusiasm for the political party that kidnapped your ancestors and continues to perpetuate an equally wicked version of social slavery. There is only one sure path to equality – be an equal. In a struggling world, grace reliably follows those who strive to learn, work, grow and contribute. There is no arguing the success of one who seizes control of their own destiny – detractors be damned.   

Conclusions

There is no place in a civil society for racism. Ferguson exposes why we should be just as aggressive in challenging today’s corrupt black culture as the racist white culture that fueled its creation. Attendance at a local NAACP meeting, Martin Luther King Jr. birthday bash or hatred-filled race rally reveals why one is as bad as the other.

We should all be ashamed of the horrific numbers of young black men we sacrifice to drop-out and unemployment; a rampant drug culture; black on black violence; decimated families; and other broken bridges to hope. We should be ashamed of accepting black leaders – locally as surely as nationally – as empty voices of deceit and self-service. We should be ashamed of politicians who secure their career on racial rhetoric. Most especially we should be ashamed of paralyzing political correctness studiously indifferent to real facts and answers.

America rightfully rejected the Democrat fueled white KKK racist culture of yesterday. We’ve since abandoned that success to another version of boys in the hood. Guess who has the bigger body count….

Conservative Tip of the Month

Salvaging your teen amidst an increasingly wicked culture is a mission best not left to chance. Three social cliques – those advocating drugs, homosexuality and atheism – are running successful recruitment programs. Adolescence is an anxiety ridden transitional period reliably defined by confusion and a search for meaning. That’s an equation ripe for kidnapping young minds. Pharmaceutical short-cuts to happiness, gender swapping and spiritual neutrality run counter to the tests of time, experience and nature. That doesn’t matter to those seeking validation of their own wobbly identity by kidnapping the identity of others. Directly resisting dark forces of influence is important – but it’s not enough. The best way to keep weeds at bay is to grow good grass. Love, success opportunities and vibrant role models are crucial to interrupting conscripted teens. There is an important difference in supporting youths’ passionate search for social truth and standing by while they are abducted by fad-driven con artists.

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Carl Mumpower is a former member of Asheville City Council.