On the Question of Systemic
Racism in the United States
By: E.P. Unum
April 29, 2021
The substance of this essay originated in an article by Ian Duncan of the Baltimore Sun Newspaper entitled The Black Dilemma. I took the time to fact-check some of his data points and found them to be accurate. His article provides some very fascinating perspectives that you never see or hear from the media, and I have tried to include all of them in this essay. Hopefully, you will agree it is worth your time to read and think about.
It has been said that we are a nation of immigrants, each coming together in a sort of “melting pot” we call America. Our motto of course is E Pluribus Unum, Latin for Out of Many, One.
I believe that accurately reflects what America has been, is and hopefully shall ever be. With that in mind, let’s think about this “melting pot” of immigrants who came together from points all over the globe to build the greatest nation the world has ever known. Most of these people came penniless offering only their skills, talents, and work ethic for just a chance to be a part of the American Dream.
They were white, black, brown, yellow, red but more than the color of their skin was the content of their character.
They were provided with no safety net, no cash stipend to help in finding a home, food, and health care; just a chance to be a part of something better than the life they left behind. What did they do with this chance?
They built a nation.
They built a nation complete with a standard of living that is the envy of the world, a thriving economy that has fueled innovation, creativity, medical and scientific discoveries that improved the quality of life for its citizens, then shared this knowledge with the rest of the world.
They invented the computer, split the atom, built huge skyscrapers and cities.
They pioneered the west and set their sights on the stars, put men on the moon, and explored space to expanded our knowledge of the universe.
They built the strongest military the world has ever seen and used it to defend our nation and to rescue Europe twice in the 20th century from tyranny, never once seizing lands or treasure but instead used their resources to rebuild nations they had defeated in war.
And, perhaps most remarkably, they accomplished all of this in 245 years, a mere blip on the radar screen of life on this planet. And the distinguishing characteristic of the people who achieved these things is they all came to our shores in search of freedom.
We are told by left-wing radicals that America is plagued by systemic racism; that our very existence was predicated on slavery as its core foundation and that America is evil.
The New York Times’ endorsement of the 1619 Project which espouses this falsehood knows full well that such a position lacks credulity and has no historical basis in fact. Yet the U.S. Department of Education has formally sanctioned the teaching of this to our children in elementary and high schools and many colleges and universities have embraced it as well.
The premise of the 1619 Project represents a gross distortion of history and essentially teaches children to hate America. If you are a parent or grandparent you should demand of your school boards that this sinister approach to educating our children be stopped immediately, and you should let your representatives in Washington know your feelings by writing to them often.
Consider, if you will, these realities and facts:
● The English came to our shores seeking freedom to worship as they choose. They were poor but they worked hard, assimilated into our culture, enjoyed freedom, and today some are rich.
● The Scots came seeking freedom, pitched in, worked hard, and built a life for themselves and their families. They were poor, but now they are solidly free and some are rich.
● The Germans came with little but the clothes on their backs. They brought with them trades and craftsmanship, built a foundation, and are part of American culture.
● The Irish came, some as indentured servants. They worked hard, gained their freedom, and built solid lives for themselves and their families. Some are even wealthy
● The Poles came with little to offer but hard work and iron-clad perseverance. They were poor but today they are a strong component of the middle class and some are even wealthy.
● The Hungarians came, most were poor, but they worked hard and benefited from the opportunities available to them in America. They were poor but now some are rich.
● The Cubans came escaping from the terror of Castro’s Revolution and Communist Rule. They were poor but they all had a tremendous work ethic and built thriving businesses and are no longer poor.
● The Vietnamese came, escaping war and poverty and the devastation of a murderous Communist Regime. They were poor but today they have through hard work and dedication built businesses and are among the brightest students in our colleges and universities. Once they were poor and now some are wealthy…and all are free.
● The Italians came with their trade skills and an extraordinary work ethic. They were poor but they worked hard, built families and businesses and now some are rich
● The Africans came, brought here to our shores by Muslim, white, and black slave traders. They were poor, unskilled, and without a common written language, and today, for the most part, they continue to be poor. And today, unlike the English, Hungarians, Italians, Spanish, Indians, Vietnamese, Asians, blacks blame their lot in life on slavery. Why is that?
Read on…..
For almost 150 years the United States has been conducting an interesting experiment. The subjects of the experiment: black people and working-class whites.
The hypothesis to be tested: Can people taken from the jungles of Africa and forced into slavery be fully integrated as citizens in a nation where the majority of its citizens are white?
The whites were descendants of Europeans who had created a majestic civilization. The former slaves had been tribal peoples with no written language, no unique skill sets, and virtually no intellectual achievements. Acting on a policy that was not fair to either group and only after we became a “House Divided” and had fought a long Civil War in which well over 600,000 mostly white soldiers on either side, North and South perished was slavery abolished by law in America.
The Civil war today stands alone as the bloodiest war in American history. That war was fought pitting brother against brother, sons against fathers to free black slaves and abolish slavery in America forever. At the end of hostilities, Congress led by Republicans ratified the Emancipation Proclamation, and the government then released newly freed black people into a white society that saw them as inferiors. America has struggled with racial discord ever since.
Decade after decade the problems persisted but the experimenters, who were predominantly white, never gave up. They insisted that if they could find the right formula, the experiment would work, and so they concocted program after program to get the result they wanted. They created the Freedman's Bureau, passed civil rights laws, invested Trillions into the Great Society, declared The War on Poverty, ordered race preferences to increase the chances for blacks to succeed, built housing projects, and tried midnight basketball. Their new laws intruded into people's lives in ways that would have been otherwise unthinkable. In 1965, when the Great Society began in earnest following the massive electoral landslide reelection of LBJ, the out-of-wedlock birthrate among the black community was 21 percent. By 2017, this figure had risen to a whopping 77 percent. In some cities, this rate is as high as 80 percent, with most of the unwed mothers being teenagers.
https://ammo.com/articles/lbj-great-society-war-on-poverty-welfare-state-helped-ruin-black-communities
They called in National Guard troops to enforce school integration.
They forced black students to be bussed to schools where the student population was predominantly white and vice versa.
They outlawed freedom of association.
They tried with money, lots of money, trillions to be sure, special programs, relaxed admission standards to prestigious colleges and universities, and endless hand wringing to close the achievement gap.
To keep white backlash in check they began punishing public and even private statements on race. They hung up Orwellian public banners that commanded whites to Celebrate Diversity! and Say No to Racism. Nothing was off-limits if it might salvage the great experiment.
Some thought that what W.E.B. DuBois called the Talented Tenth would lead the way for black people. A group of elite, educated, successful blacks would knock down doors of opportunity and show the world what blacks were capable of. An abysmal failure.
There is a Talented Tenth. They are the black Americans who have become entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors, engineers, astronauts, and scientists. But ten percent is not enough. For the experiment to work, the ten percent has to be followed by a critical mass of people who can hold middle-class jobs and promote social stability. That hasn’t happened. That is what is missing.
Speaking bluntly, it is an incontrovertible fact that through the years, too many black people continue to show an inability to function and prosper in a culture manifestly unsuited to them. Detroit is bankrupt, the South Side of Chicago is a war zone, and the vast majority of black cities all over America, Newark NJ, New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles are beset by homelessness, degeneracy, and violence. Interestingly, blacks never seem to take responsibility for their failures. Instead, they lash out in anger and resentment and blame someone else.
Across the generations and across the country, as we have seen in Detroit, Watts, Newark, Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, Portland, Seattle, and Ferguson, rioting, and looting are just one racial incident away.
The white elite would tell us that this doesn't mean the experiment has failed. We just have to try harder. We are preached to that we need to eliminate systemic racism. We need more money to throw at the problems of black America, more time, more understanding, more programs, and more opportunities. We need more! Really? How has that worked over the last 100 years? How about the last fifty years?
But nothing changes no matter how much money is spent, no matter how many laws are passed, no matter how many black geniuses are portrayed on TV, and no matter who is president.
Some argue it’s a problem of culture, as if culture creates people’s behavior instead of the other way around. Others blame white privilege. I am not even sure I know what white privilege is! I do know that when my grandfather and grandmother came to America they were not considered privileged. And I grew up on the streets of New York and can tell you most assuredly that I was not privileged.
But since 1965, when the elites opened America's doors to the Third World, immigrants from Asia and India and impoverished areas in South America, people who are not white, not rich, and not connected, have quietly succeeded. While the children of these people are winning spelling bees and math contests and getting top scores on the SAT, black youths are committing half the country's violent crime, which includes viciously punching random white people on the street for the thrill of it. Such actions have nothing to do with poverty. They have an awful lot to do with a lack of respect for anyone in authority and a lack of guidance from their homes.
Think about it: Black Americans constitute 13% of the population of the United States and 50% of the crime. That is astounding and it should shock you to your core.
The great experiment has failed. Not because of white culture, or white privilege, or white racism. The fundamental problem is that American black culture has evolved into an un-fixable and crime-ridden mess. They do not want to change their culture or society and expect others to tolerate their violence and amoral behavior. They have become socially incompatible with other races by their own design, not because of the racism of others - but by their own hatred of non-blacks. No matter how many dollars are given to them, they believe they are entitled to more because they are descendants of slaves. And, so today, black advocates and politicians pandering to blacks for their votes are now clamoring for “reparations’ to compensate blacks for the “sin of slavery”.
Think about this for a second: white Americans who never owned slaves and had nothing to do with bringing slaves to America’s shores, are expected to pay black Americans money because they may be descendants of slaves but were never slaves themselves. The sheer lunacy of this defies explanation. But they are doing precisely this in Illinois!
But you will not hear any of this from the elites in Washington. They use the term systemic racism without ever defining what it is. The term means racism is rampant throughout America and that is a blatant lie. President Biden has been in government for fifty years and served two terms as Vice President of the United States under President Barack Hussein Obama, our first Black President. If there was systemic racism in our nation, why didn’t they fix it when they were in power? The answer is there is no such thing as systemic racism. It is a false narrative and a self-defeating one.
Our “leaders”, made up of politicians who are not real leaders, don't seem to understand just how tired their white subjects are with this experiment. They don't understand that white people aren't out to get black people or keep them down; they are just exhausted with them.
They are exhausted by the social pathologies, the violence, the endless complaints, and the blind racial solidarity, the bottomless pit of grievances, the excuses, and the reflexive animosity. The elites explain everything with racism and refuse to believe that white frustration could soon reach the boiling point.
You know, there is an old adage that goes like this:" if you kick a dog long enough, he’s gonna bite."
Maybe it is time to take a tougher stance. Maybe the safety nets should be eliminated or drastically reduced and made available only in the most extreme circumstances. Maybe we should return to a time when burning and looting are not tolerated and police are empowered to respond to such threats with force. Maybe a little tough love ought to be the order of the day.
When I coached baseball if my team was not hitting well, I’m gonna do something. I’m gonna change the lineup a bit because I need to shake things up to get my offense going. Maybe we might play a little small ball and bunt guys into scoring position, maybe we will play hit and run a little bit, take some chances on the bases and change the hitting order a bit…..but we are gonna do something different!
But this is one thing I would hammer home and I hope and pray Republicans en masse stand up and announce to all the world that we do not buy into Critical Race Theory or the 1619 project and that America is not a racist nation.
