Racist America?

Something has been chewing on me for the past couple of weeks. Please forgive me, because it should have been chewing on me for the past four decades. America is a grossly racist country. We whites have worked diligently to subjugate the non-white communities. I should have realized this fact every time I pass the plantations with the workers picking cotton.

At least, that is what the “Reverend” Wright and Senator Obama would have us believe. Dr. King died 40 years ago yesterday for the cause of unity between the races. When I listen to the comments of Senator Obama, one thought comes to mind. Do we want a racist like Barak Obama as president? Do we want to be told for four or eight years that whites hate non-whites, and non-whites hate whites? This is antithetical to Dr. King’s efforts. From the moment of his death, racists like Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Charles Rangel have been trying to hold a pity-party on how down trodden the blacks, in particular, are. They play the “race card” with alacrity.
Well, those three are getting a bit long in the tooth and need to pass the mantle on to the younger generation. Who better to take up the gauntlet, but Barak Hussein Obama? He is everything they could possibly want. He is only one generation away from Africa. He is the product of and a white American woman and a black African man. He wishes, by his own admission; he could rid himself of his white blood. He has discussed how frightened his white grandmother was of black men and that was a typical white response. My question to the good Senator is; “What have you done to calm your grandmother’s fears? You are a black man who, obviously, identifies with your perception of the black community. Why haven’t you presented a non-threatening side to your grandmother?”

I am, admittedly, white. I always have been white and always will be. I even have the unmitigated gall to have blond hair and blue eyes. Therefore, I do not and will never be able to see the world through a black man’s eyes. However, I have worked with a lot of black men, and a few black women, in my 40+ year working career. Since the mid 1970s I do not recall the extreme rancor that Senator Obama is talking about. Obviously, there are some blacks that have been harboring this resentment all these years. The evidence is fairly clear; just look at “Reverend” Wright and Senator Obama. And now they appear to be determined to fan that flame once again.

At this point, I would like to relate to you a personal experience. I left the active duty Navy in late 1968 and returned in mid 1973. At that time I was assigned to the USS Truxtun (DLGN-35). This was a time that the Navy, and all of the services, was going through growing pains with regard to race relations. The Navy, always trying to be on the cutting edge of societal evolution, established a mandatory program called “Upward Seminar.” This was a program whereby a group of 15 – 20 sailors of mixed rank and race would come together to discuss race relations, and specifically how each of us felt about the other races. Each seminar was facilitated by one black and one white sailor who had been trained to conduct these sessions. I remember the session (several days per session) I attended. My division Chief Petty Officer was the white sailor and a close acquaintance, a Petty Officer 2nd Class from a different department, was the black sailor (I do not remember his name). At the time I was a Petty Officer 2nd Class. At the beginning of the seminar we each were asked to share our feelings, candidly, about the opposite race. I said that I did not have an opinion about blacks, as blacks. I looked at each sailor as shipmates and judged them as individuals. About half way through the seminar, the black facilitator looked me in the eye and proudly pronounced me to be a bigoted racist. This really took me back and made me reflect on what I might have said or done to convey this opinion. I drew a blank and still do. At the end of the seminar we were all asked what we had learned and what we were taking away from the multi-day event. When it came to me, I said quite simply that my opinion of blacks had not changed, but no longer liked the black facilitator. We never spoke again. I don’t know if he was trained to provoke that type of incident. If he was, he never relayed that information to me. My only conclusion is that he was of the same ilk as Senator Obama.

I have not discussed the Senator’s wife and her obvious dislike for this wonderful country. I could not come close to improving on Michelle Malkin’s discussion of the Michelle Obama.
I love this country and honestly believe that we are only great because of the hard work and ingenuity of ALL of its citizens; not white, not black, not Hispanic, and not Asian. I do not believe in hyphenated-Americans. Black-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans demonstrate their desire NOT to be Americans. These are the people that long for another time and place. In all actuality, all of us could stick a hyphen in our ethnicity. I could say that I am a Belgian-American on my dad’s side or I am a Native-American (evidenced by my blond hair and blue eyes) on my mother’s side.

I encourage all of my readers to contemplate these ideas and reflect on your attitude toward America. Are you Americans?

As a footnote, I put “Reverend” in quotes because, as a believing Christian, I do not view Mr. Wright as one. I believe that if he is a “Reverend” he is praying to and glorifying a much different god than I do. I believe that his god was thrown out of heaven by God.