How to Improve Race Relations in America

by: tim dunkin | published: 08 04, 2013

If there is one issue at the forefront of the minds of most Americans right now, it is that of race relations. The George Zimmerman trial, as well as a host of lesser-known events such as the recent Supreme Court strike down of a critical (and unnecessary) part of the Voting Rights Act, has thrust matters of race back to the center of the American conscience. This has provided the bevy of race-baiters and professional “civil rights” activists that infest our public discourse with the opportunity to once against stir the pot and to try to set Americans against each other.

The problem with combating this, for most normal Americans at least, is psychological. Because the professionally offended load their “discourse” with emotionally powerful concepts and terms, the average American who sees this happening and realizes how ridiculous and stupid it all it nevertheless is tempted to shy away from opposing it lest they be term “racist” or “bigoted.” All this does is enables the racemongers to go further and further with it.

Yet, the power of the race-baiters can be broken. But how do we do it?

First, let’s ask a question. Are race relations and the state of affairs for racial minorities in America really worse than they have been for decades? Especially with respect to black-white relations, are black Americans really more oppressed, more held down, than at any time since Jim Crow?

The answer to that question is “no.” In fact, the situation is far, far different from that which is usually portrayed by your typical leftist demagogue. Race relations are continuing to improve steadily, despite the best efforts of the Left. The situation for black Americans is, in fact, getting better and better with each passing year (though the current plan to legalize and import millions of low-skill, low-wage foreign workers who will be directly competing with large chunks of the black community for jobs and patronage won’t do them much good). Black Americans enjoy legal parity with whites; they can live where they want, get the same jobs, enjoy the same legal privileges, and so forth. Indeed, in many ways (such as enjoying access to affirmative action and some would say preferential protections from hate crimes laws); blacks are a little moreequal than whites in some areas – overcompensation for past injustices, you might say.

Ironically, the Zimmerman verdict helps to illustrate this improvement in race relations. Aside from a few isolated instances of violence, the widely-predicted (indeed, encouraged) rioting by black Americans did not happen. Despite their best efforts, Je$$e Jack$on and Al $harpton don’t have nearly as much blood on their hands as they have in times past.

So no, despite the Left’s continued efforts to stir up hatred and wrath, the on-the-ground reality is that black and white Americans are more equal and less mistrustful that at any time before. Understand this baseline fact, and you will understand just why the Left’s arguments about continued, pervasive racial “injustice” and their incessant pot-stirring efforts are so wrongheaded and despicable.

Second, if we want to see the hard-fought gains of the past several decades remain, instead of being eroded by the acid vitriol of the Left’s propaganda, then we have to find a way to wrestle control of the discussion about race in America away from the crazies on both sides like the KKK, NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Let’s think about it for a minute – who has the most to gain from continuing to set Americans against each other along racial lines? Who profits from this divide-and-conquer strategy that weakens America? The crazies, that’s who. How do you think “Reverend” $harpton can afford his flashy suits and his new high-maintenance girlfriend?

So why do we let these people continue to dominate the discussion? Why do we allow those with the basest motives to drive our national debate on this issue? More broadly, how do we wrestle back this discussion from the Left, in general, since the Left are the most motivated to have it, seeing as they profit from it politically and financially? After all – and let’s be honest here – the Left is largely responsible for racial tensions in this country. Left to themselves, most Americans of all races would note our differences and then proceed to work together to build this country. I firmly believe that. The fact that there is so much continued ill-will and agitation generating racial tensions is because the Democrats and the Left want it to be this way. Racial demagoguery scares people and gets their votes, donations, and most importantly, power over peoples’ minds. When you constantly tell people that they’re being held back by the mythical “Man,” instead of encouraging them to put away the past and look to the future, you make them dependent on you to “right the wrongs,” both real and (now mostly) imagined. You bring them into your power, and you can do whatever you want with them.

The starting point for taking back the discussion has to begin with honesty. We do need to acknowledge that there have been great injustices done in the past to people because of their race. I don’t just mean admitting historical facts that we all know, but accepting that this past doescolor the way people look at the present, and ignoring or trying to minimize past injustices is not helpful to having an honest conversation. White conservatives need to stop bristling whenever someone mentions Jim Crow, slavery, the Tuskegee experiments, the repeated lies and backstabbing America did to the Native Americans, and so forth. Recognize that these are, indeed, legitimate historical reasons why people might be less than willing to accept a rosy view of America. But at the same time, emphasize that these are past events – and we live in the present. Living in the past destroys the spirit, living in the present with an eye to the future invigorates it. Honesty involves moving the discussion beyond the past.

At the same time, demand that honesty be a two-way street. The Left and racial minorities need to be willing to admit that the things that the average American observes are in fact real, and not just racist Republican constructs. The reason more black men are incarcerated than whites is because blacks commit a disproportionate share of crimes in America. If nothing else, the FBI’s uniform crime statistics tell us that. Pervasive poverty in the black community is not to due to “institutionalized racism,” but to systematic pathologies – welfare dependency, destruction of marriage, out-of-wedlock births, and so forth – that have crept into their community since the War on Poverty and the Great Society were inflicted upon them by the Democrats. Conservative opposition to increased welfare and other social spending is not “racist” and is not an attack on blacks in America. It is in fact quite the opposite – it is a rescue attempt that will ultimately help blacks (indeed allAmericans) to get back on their feet and prosper. Until the Left can find it within themselves to accept these realities and face facts, a genuine conversation will be very difficult to pursue.

Further, we need to recognize and point out that most of what the Left calls “racism” is not. Things like systematically disadvantaging people before the law because of their race, lynching people because of their race, making people use different facilities because of their race – those are genuine racism. Most everything the Left calls “racist” today is not. The Left has succeeded in “moving the goalposts” on racism, a logical error which, ironically, highlights just how unnecessary continued fear of realracism really is anymore, beyond very isolated incidents. So now, the Left has to redefine “racism” to mean “promoting welfare reform” or “passing voter ID laws” or “demanding enforcement of immigration laws.” Basically, anything the Left doesn’t like becomes “racist,” because the Left needs racism to continue to exist so as to perpetuate its relevancy in fundraising and vote-wrangling.

Lastly, we need to assert with the utmost vigor that actually using terms like “racist” and “bigot” in the discussion about race – unless you’re talking about a lynching – is an automatic deal-breaker. The Left has overused these terms to the point where they have no real meaning anymore. Their use is not indicative of someone who has the moral high ground, but rather of someone who is too stupid or conniving to engage in an honest, intelligent conversation about an issue that continues to exist in our nation. Screaming “racist” at someone trying to honestly deal with the problems facing America’s black community is like shouting at your plumber for “hurting” the fitting he’s trying to remove to fix your water leak. It’s stupid and counterproductive.

Ultimately, what I’m talking about above is that conservatives and liberty lovers need to be proactive and wrestle the discussion back from the Left. What we do notneed to do – even though this is advocated by a lot of folks who like to say it because they think it makes them sound like some kind of rugged individual or something – is to simply ignore the discussion. Sorry, but race is not going away, and the conversation about race isn’t either. This being the case, we can either continue to be cowed by it, or we can punch the Left in the face and take it from them. I vote for the latter. Doing so is going to require some fortitude on the part of people who love America, however. It means we have to be upfront about contradicting our neighbors and co-workers and family members when they make false assertions about race or start mindlessly slinging epithets around. It means we have to overcome the psychological barrier of “not being liked” or “being perceived as mean” and start forcing people in this country to face facts. Do it, and we will see America get better. Don’t, and America will only continue to fragment into the balkanized nightmare that the Left would love for it to be.

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