SubscribeBarack Obama’s Pastor And “Spiritual Mentor”
As noted in our earlier article, Barack Obama is a member of a radical church that preaches Afrocentrism, racism and Bush-bashing.
Here is a video from YouTube that purports to be a sermon from Obama’s pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.:
My transcription of Rev. Wright’s remarks:
God Has Got To Be Sick Of This Shit!
[Joined in progress] … Justice is ignored. When women are treated like, or are permitted by this society to be called publicly "bitches," justice is ignored.
And on that note, on that note, let me paraphrase Dr. Anthony Campolo, one of the nation’s greatest preachers.
He said something to this effect.
Fact number one: we’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college.
Racism is alive and well. Racism is the American way.
Racism is how this country was founded, and how this country is still run.
No black man can ever be President. I don’t care how hard you run Jesse.
No black woman will ever be considered for anything outside of what she can give with her body.
Fact number three: America is still the number one killer in the world.
We invaded Grenada for no other reason than to get Maurice Bishop. We destroyed Panama because Noriega would no longer dance to our tune anymore.
We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training professional killers.
We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children, while trying to turn public opinion against Castro and Qaddafi.
Fact number four: we put Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there.
We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority. And believe it more than we believe in God.
Fact number five: we supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians, and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic.
Fact number six: we conducted radiation experiments on our own people. You’re just finding out about that. We care nothing about human life, if the end justifies the means.
Fact number seven: we do not care if poor black and brown children cannot read and kill each other senselessly. We abandoned the cities back in the sixties when the riots started, and it really doesn’t matter what those nnn… [niggers] "natives" do to each other.
We gave up on them and public education for poor people who live in the projects. We with VCRs, DVDs, CDs and portable phones have more homeless than any nation in the world.
Fact number eight: we started the AIDS virus, and now that it is out of control we still put more money in the military than in medicine. More money in hate than humanitarian concerns.
Everybody does not have access to health care. I don’t care what the rich white boys in the Senate say.
[Garbled] listen up. If you are poor black and elderly — forget it.
Fact number nine: we only able to maintain our level of living by making sure the Third World people live in grinding poverty.
Fact number ten: we are selfish, self-centered ego egotists, who are arrogant and ignorant.
We pray at church and do not try to make the kingdom that Jesus talked about a reality.
And, and, and… in light of these in fact God has got to be sick of this shit!
I wonder if he said this to Barack?
No black man can ever be President.
In light of Reverend Wright’s remarks, read this article from the Chicago Tribune:
Pastor inspires Obama’s ‘audacity’
By Manya A. Brachear
January 21, 2007When he took over Trinity United Church of Christ in 1972, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. was a maverick pastor with a wardrobe of dashikis and a militant message.
Six years later, he planted a "Free South Africa" sign on the lawn of his church and asked other local religious leaders to follow his lead.
None took him up on the invitation.
The sign stayed until the end of apartheid, –long enough to catch the eye of a young Barack Obama, who visited the church in 1985 as a community activist. Obama, was not a churchgoer at the time, but he found himself returning to the sanctuary of Trinity United. In Wright he had found both a spiritual mentor and a role model.
Wright, 65, is a straight-talking pragmatist who arrived in Chicago as an outsider and became an institution. He has built a congregation of 8,500, including the likes of Oprah Winfrey and hip-hop artist Common, by offering an alternative to socially conservative black churches that are, Wright believes, too closely tied to Chicago’s political dynasties…
Obama says that rather than advising him on strategy, Wright helps keep his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated.
"What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice," Obama said. "He’s much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking as truthfully about what I believe as possible and that I’m not losing myself in some of the hype and hoopla and stress that’s involved in national politics."
The rebellious son of a Baptist minister, Wright was hired by Trinity United when he could find no Baptist church to take him. The congregation on 95th Street, then numbering just 87, had recently adopted the motto "Unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian." They did not mind his fiery red Afro and black power agenda…
[Wright] eventually returned to Howard University to finish bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English with a focus on African spirituals. At the University of Chicago Divinity School, he earned another master’s in the history of religions with a focus on Islam…
In his 1993 memoir "Dreams from My Father," Obama recounts in vivid detail his first meeting with Wright in 1985. The pastor warned the community activist that getting involved with Trinity might turn off other black clergy because of the church’s radical reputation.
When Obama sought his own church community, he felt increasingly at home at Trinity. Before leaving for Harvard Law School in 1988, he responded to one of Wright’s altar calls and declared a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Later he would base his 2004 keynote speech to the Democratic National Convention on a Wright sermon called "Audacity to Hope," –also the inspiration for Obama’s second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope."
Though Wright and Obama do not often talk one-on-one often, the senator does check with his pastor before making any bold political moves.
Last fall, Obama approached Wright to broach the possibility of running for president. Wright cautioned Obama not to let politics change him, but he also encouraged Obama, win or lose…
Are Mr. Wright’s spittle-flecked racist rantings what Obama calls "audacity"?
Is this what inspires him?
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54 Responses to “Barack Obama’s Pastor And “Spiritual Mentor””
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January 25th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
“What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice,” Obama said.
Exactly what “day to day political advice” is the rev giving osamaobama?
January 25th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
‘master’s in the history of religions with a focus on Islam’ - for someone who down plays his ‘association’ with Islam the blackgodboy always seems to find a way to find it again (Islamic father) and again (Islamic stepfather) and again (islamic madress schooling) and again (UCofC with an Islamic focusing pastor). . .
Not to worry, good ole Hillary will knock him out of the race.
Talk about a bunch of racists - these people just specialize in keeping the hate and anger alive and well.
Is the byline for this article Ms H. Rodham? Just another hit piece to keep Barack the blackgodboy in his place - which is under her pradas.
January 25th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
wardmama4 ,
I think you have got it. The hildebeast will save us from the muslim horde.
That’s the ticket to capture the redneck vote.
January 25th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
1sttofight - uh who is going to save us from the hildabeast?
I still say, some enterprizing blogger out there needs to dig up her ’secret’ , her ‘coverup’ that will send this woman and her seriel sex offender husband back to the trailer trash (forgive me, I lived in them a couple of times myself - when the man kept me down). . .obscurity they never should have emerged from.
January 25th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
“What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice,…” Obama said.
“Though Wright and Obama do not often talk one-on-one often…”
Which is it? “Not often” or “Day-to-day”? or does “day-to-day” mean “not often”…?
January 25th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Actually wardmama4, IMO several folks already have. They assumed room temp soon after.
Southern Mafia on Parade.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
The lies and insults hurled upon Clarence Thomas and Dr. Rice, among other black leaders who don’t happen to be liberal, is allowable by the left.
Naturally, he can count on the majority of black votes, but not all of them. One need only look at the last election cycle where conservative blacks ran.
“guiding ideological passions,”
January 25th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Reader Kathy has suggested that the minister referred to in Obama’s minister’s speech is Tony Campolo — http://www.tonycampolo.org/
She notes that Campolo was photographed with Bill Clinton on a number of occasions. Apparently, he’s an ultra liberal who believes in ministering to Europe, not the US, which he considers a lost cause.
January 25th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
What a find. The media will be all over this. (I kid.)
Pastor Wright doesn’t sound right in the head.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
If I was black, I’d get sick of all this whining and complaining. It would be such a bummer to attend a church where all this crap is being spat. Heck, I’m not black and I’m sick of all the whining and complaining.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
“No black woman will ever be considered for anything outside of what she can give with her body.”
Does Condolezza Rice not count as black?
January 26th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Rev. Paucity of Hope’s god is Anger and his religion is Slander.
If he were sent to the villages of Papua New Guinea where no one had ever heard of big bad America, what the hell would he preach about? It’s hard to believe he’s ever stayed awake through, much less preached “Christ alone and him crucified.”
The kind of religio-political demagoguery rhetoric that passes for the gospel with this Prophet of Africa and his school of thought is often a cover for a lifestyle of vice and self-centeredness. If Wright is an exception consider me impressed. (I do not expect to be impressed.)
Whenever I hear somebody go on this kind of rip (it happens less in TX than it did in IL, but it still happens) I have to ask them “What’s the ‘moral of the story?’ How shall we then live?”
Four times out of five there is no “moral”. I get a blank stare, as if either the implications are self-evident or the whole rant is just a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” It’s like asking them the moral of the story of the latest Shakira tune.
The fifth time the moral turns out to be a pretty prosaic cliche like “Be tolerant” or “Vote Democrat” or “Remember some people don’t like America.” And even those they have to work hard mentally to come up with. Pitiful.
January 26th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Oh, and Tony Campolo the potty-mouth (he would be right at home saying “God is sick of this shit!”) still has a lot of influence among Church of Christ preachers and academics. He actually does believe in God and the Bible, which limits his possibilities of prominence among his fellow socialists and anti-American nutjobs (boo-hoo). It was a sad day when he drank the Liberation Theology kool-aid. The increasingly secular v. Muslim Europe, though, is the wrong direction for him to go if he’s given up the US–he would be a lot more at home with Hugo and all those good Jesus-was-a-commie “Christians” down Venezuela way.
January 26th, 2007 at 2:20 am
I’m surprised at you Clarissimus.
Of course Condoleeza doesn’t count; she’s not a liberal black womarn, just the same as Clarence Thomas doesn’t count as a black man (nor does Thomas Sowell.)
None of this explains why Oprah is the richest female in the country; I guess it must be for “what she can give with her body.”
January 26th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Obama announce yesterday that universal healthcare should be instituted in America by the end of the next president’s term.
Just what I want…turn over control of my medical care to the Dems. What a joke.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:02 am
This “black value system” they’re preaching is poison to the black community. It’s baffling how so many black people ignore common sense and buy into this crap.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:23 am
People love to be victims. This is the foundation for the modern democratic party. This “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality of our fathers is dying fast.
If you can blame someone else for your problems, you don’t have to look at yourself or what you’re doing to correct any perceived problems. Personal responsibility has no place in American society nowadays. Burn yourself on some hot coffee? Sue the restaurant. Got drunk and run over because you fell asleep under a parked car? Sue the bar you got drunk in. Are many of your people devoid of identity and living generations in jail or on the dole? It must be white people doing this to you, rather than something you’ve done to yourselves.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
“This “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality of our fathers is dying fast.”
Have you ever noticed the “bootstrap” PSAs that sometimes run here on S&L? It kills me that their solution is to give people video cameras.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Look at who has finally picked up this story. Rolling Stone magazine, of all places.
And of course they give no attribution. But at least somebody somewhere is reporting it:
February 15th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Do you suppose a little “shrillary bird” twerped this information into Ben Wallace-Wells ear? Maybe her internet spies are hereee, there and everywhere-watch out.
February 15th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Lately Obamayomama has been talking about how he was reluctant to run because of the fear he would be assassinated. He must have got Ms. Hillary’s memo.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
This can’t be surprising, really. Remember Sharpton slandering Pagones? Accused the guy of gang-raping a 15-year-old girl, and when Pagones sued him for libel (and won!), Sharpton refused to pay. Even now, when asked if he has any apology for the accusations he made over Tawana Brawley, his response is “no apology for standing up for civil rights”.
Or we can go further back–anybody remember Freddy’s Fashion Mart? Yankel Rosenbaum? Sharpton’s response to that was that any Jews who didn’t like it could “pin back their yarmulkes and come to my house”.
This isn’t radical, folks. It’s mainstream Democrat.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Redneck. Wordpress.com. It’s free and easy. You’ve got the ammo, you just need the gun. :)
February 15th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Still thinkin’ on it. :) Just need to come up with a name.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I’m not opposed to politicians who have faith — in fact, I think it is necessary to help guide our country. But I want it to be real. I want it to be genuine. I dont want it to be just for the cameras.
There is a great conversation about Politicians and faith found here:
http://redletterbelievers.blog.....faith.html
David Rupert
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:31 am
So… by saying that racism is alive and well today, then this man is racist? That makes no logical sense. I don’t agree with many of this man’s radical stances; however, there is no argument that America has historically and systematically oppressed African-Americans since before its inception.
“we are selfish, self-centered ego egotists, who are arrogant and ignorant.” —this comment is not unique to this pastor. Go to ANY other country in the world (including our allies) and they will say that about Americans.
I must say, you all make me ashamed to be a Republican. Are you sure you’re not those stupid Democrats that Ann Coulter talked about who have been reprogrammed to like Republicans?
And, by the way, AmericanIPA, people love to be victims? Well, try to be subjugated for a few hundred years. And systematically denied of everything that is essential to being an American until just a few decades ago. And then make that statement again. Please stop drinking the first-grade history textbook kool-aid and learn your American history. Some parts of it aren’t that pretty. And a lot of it involved… “victims”.
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:25 am
Awwww Cry me a river LightlySmart. Racism is alive and well today! Look at the OJ Simpson Murder Trial. Look at garbage being spewed out of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Fahrakhan. Look at the Movies, Television and other racist filth being put out by Hollywood. The stupid liberal person of color up in the Heirarchy as the “HERO”, the conservative corporate caucasian evil crook with the haircut as the “Bad Guy”. Well LightlySmart just because YOU fell for that Bovine Feces doesn’t mean WE DID. If you are so ashamed to be a Republican then just MOVE to Africa where you will be at home with your socialist conscious. Hope this helps and have a nice day….;-)
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 am
It’s intriguing when these phonies like LightlySweet emerge–similar to the “seminar callers” on talk radio. “Her” mindless ramblings are shot through with liberal sentiment. I thought liberals were supposed to be good liars—they definately excel in self delusion and groupthink.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
…there is no argument that America has historically and systematically oppressed African-Americans since before its inception.
Name one society in history that hasn’t oppressed another race when the opportunity afforded itself. The key word here is historically. Yes, it happened. Yes it was a bad thing. We’ve been hearing all about it ever since. We get it, thanks. If you can explain to me how -here in this age of affirmative action and black-this and black-that- how stirring up anti-white sentiment is helpful to anyone (other than racists and race pimps) maybe we can talk.
Go to ANY other country in the world (including our allies) and they will say that about Americans.
Oh really ? Every single person in every country in the world says this about Americans ? How is it then that the President of France and the Prime Minister of Canada -both of whom are noted for their pro-American- stance are the elected leaders in those two countries ? Ditto for Tony Blair and John Howard -both of whom managed to get themselves re-elected (majority governments, no less) while being known as “America’s staunchest allies” (and yes I realize Howard is not in power anymore).
Did all these heads of state stage coups ?
Funny how in America and abroad, the anti-American stance is largely a platform of the liberal left. And that’s what gets the air time and the headlines. The BBC and the CBC (to name just two) no more speak for conservative (and largely pro-American) Brits and Canucks than the New York Times speaks for conservative Americans. I think you’ll find that to be the case in most western countries.
I must say, you all make me ashamed to be a Republican.
Don’t take it too hard. This is a conservative site. From what I’ve seen, the feelings around here towards Republicans are getting less and less cordial.
Well, try to be subjugated for a few hundred years. And systematically denied of everything that is essential to being an American until just a few decades ago.
Again -stirring up anti-white sentiment is helpful, how ? Maintaining a victim mentality is helpful, how ?
LightlySweet, are you for real ? You sound just like a white liberal. If you want to loathe yourself for things that were done fifty, a hundred, two hundred years ago -go right ahead. Both don’t ask everyone else to. And if you’re black and it turns your crank to be a professional victim, or just plain bitter, about things that probably never happened to you personally -be my guest. But again, don’t ask for my sympathy.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:18 am
No–by slandering other races, running a “black power agenda” and generally doing the same things every other racist does, this man is racist. He’d done considerably more than simply say that racism is alive and well today.
And considering the pap you’re spouting, I have a hard time believing you’ve ever been a Republican, much less that you’re questioning your dedication only now.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am
All this talk of racism and hillary being a racist sort of pisses me off, black men actually had the right to vote in this country before women did. The women who fought for the right to vote were tortured and force fed, so technically and historically we were more oppressed than black men.
And yes black people were oppressed but so were the italians and the irish and pretty much every ethnic group that has ever immigrated to this continent, everybody always forgets about that.
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Excuse me while I laugh very heartily.
First of all, I am African-American. And a Republican. Go figure.
Secondly, I wasn’t aware that being a Republican meant that we all just ignore or explain away the various inimitably horrendous things our country did (and withheld) from African-Americans, Native Americans, and most other non-majority groups. To say that “everybody does it” is asinine.
Thirdly, by saying “go to ANY other country in the world…” I obviously wasn’t saying that EVERY person on EVERy continent: that’s the kind of ridiculous generalization that you all would seem to do. I don’t care what Tony Blair says; I’m talking about the people.
Fourthly, this is not anti-white sentiment. One does need to “stir up” anti-white sentiment. That can easily be had just by living. Nay, this is simply the same thing that many Bible-believing, Evangelical, African-American churches do, which is try to empower their community. And by “empower”, I don’t mean the scary image you have your head of big black men with machine guns hijacking the suburbs and raping your women; I mean trying to give their youth a way out of a prevalent cycle of poverty.
Fifthly, I’m not loathing myself, or you, or whites, or anyone else for what happened fifty, a hundred, two hundred years ago. Last time I looked, racism was undisputedly prevalent in America through the 60s. And common sense, let alone years of experience, would tell you that it didn’t just instantly die. to say that “racism” is just something that happened in our past and has nothing to do with today is quite naive. I suggest you read a book.
Lastly, Madame Candy, I’m trying to recall a time when a white woman got beaten down or shot or her house burned down for trying to vote, after women got the right to vote in 1920. Anybody? Well, we do factually know that African-Americans were systematically kept from voting through 1965. Sounds a lot more recent than 1920. But I digress.
To say that “the Italians and the Irish and pretty much every ethnic group that has ever immigrated to this continent” were oppressed as compared to African-Americans, shows that it is most likely nigh impossible to have any kind of rational conversation with you, as you either did not pass 10th grade history class, or you refuse to live in reality.
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
“So… by saying that racism is alive and well today, then this man is racist? ”
Sorry, LS, but if you can read Mr. Wright’s remarks and then claim he is not a racist then you have no credibility.
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
SG:…”Sorry, LS, but if you can read Mr. Wright’s remarks and then claim he is not a racist then you have no credibility….”
And if you concur with any of the vile, hostile, hatred and the type of invective he spews, and claim that past practices justify his remarks and the way in which he makes them, then you, also, are as racist as is he. Need examples of that which I speak? Well……….
…..”we’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college….” (and of course they were all framed–they did nothing to merit their current lot)?
….”America is still the number one killer in the world…” (patently untrue, and easily refuted in one of those books you sarcastically suggest we read)!.
….”we supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians, and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic….” (please have him prove his first allegation and refute his second statement–or maybe he’d rather have his buddy Farrakhan do that)
….”We care nothing about human life, if the end justifies the means….” (totally ridiculous assertion. That is, however, the way his islamist friends comport themselves, and he refuses to disassociate himself from them)
…”Fact number seven: we do not care if poor black and brown children cannot read and kill each other senselessly…” (pure, unadulterated, bullshit! Do you actually believe this, too?)
….”We with VCRs, DVDs, CDs and portable phones have more homeless than any nation in the world…..” (mindless prattling on designed to stir up the masses. I doubt the man has ever bothered to find out the facts. Can you give statistics to support this claim? No, you cannot, because it isn’t true)
….”we only able to maintain our level of living by making sure the Third World people live in grinding poverty….” (no nation on earth gives more aid, both monetary and humanitarian, than the US, and this hate-monger knows it, I’m through pointing out the obvious to the likes of you. Take your self-pitying self somewhere else and peddle your drivel. It takes a lot of nerve for someone like you to hurl a charge of ignorance toward anyone here. The fact that you buy in to his (Wright’s) crap speaks volumes about ypurself. We here aren’t ignorant, and no amount of your verbal diarreha will convince anyone else, anywhere else of your claims. As SG says, you have no credibility)!
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
(”more homeless than any nation in the world.”) Wrong again!! India holds that distinction, with most of the fractured nations of central Africa following a close second. What those countries dont have is bleeding heart apologists groveling in shame for living in the most prosperous nation on Earth. Alchololics, drug addicts, mentally ill, and a few down on their luck comprise our “homeless”. Most have been offered programs to better themselves, programs offered at taxpayer’s expense by well meaning but horribly misguided people who just want to help. The “homeless” prefer to be homeless. Those that dont are not homeless for long. The public trough is deep for those who know how to work it…..and those people make a living being professional victims that our pandering socialists drool over in a vain attempt to help them. Nah, we dont have the largest homeless population on earth….. ours are just used by liberals as a fulcrum to pry ever more dollars out of the wallets of those who do have homes.
and if God was indeed sick of this shit, we wouldnt have the people running for office that are, nor would we suffer the rhetoric of people who believe they are above being criticized because they are of color. Leave God out of it….if anything, he is embarrassed that it has come to this.
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
SJ;
Are you beginning to wonder that we even spend time responding to this stupidity? I think it’s time for this left-of-Obama, pseudo-republican to take her (his, whatever, we don’t know) show on the road. I’ve been around Democrats most of my adult life, and spent a whole career surrounded by them (I’m a union carpenter), and everything I’ve heard this person (LS) say would dovetail nicely into their talking points. I’ve yet to hear even my most liberal Republican friends espouse such crap! To paraphrase–”I know Republicans, ma’am. You’re no Republican!”
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Fourthly, this is not anti-white sentiment. One does need to “stir up” anti-white sentiment. That can easily be had just by living.
LightlySweet,
You, Madam, are a racist pig.
However, in the interest of racial harmony, I’d like you to know that you are as EQUALLY free to bugger off as your white counterparts in the KKK are.
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
To say that “the Italians and the Irish and pretty much every ethnic group that has ever immigrated to this continent” were oppressed as compared to African-Americans, shows that it is most likely nigh impossible to have any kind of rational conversation with you, as you either did not pass 10th grade history class, or you refuse to live in reality.
I believe some of my relatives in Oklahoma would disagree with you. You see, they were the subjects of a policy of forced re-location, denial of sustenance at the hands of the US Army, and when they failed to comply with the wishes of the government in Washington, had troops sent against them with orders to kill all who didn’t surrender…in short, what amounted to genocide.
I’m 1/4 Comanche, and damned proud of it. I also am of Irish descent, and those relations were aspersed as being “Romanists” and caricatured in the newspapers of the day in a manner that made depictions of blacks seem civilized by comparison. They were denied work, forced into the first urban ghettoes in American history (not just poor neighborhoods, mind you, but entire parts of cities were deemed only suitable for the Irish). Catholic churches were fire bombed, Irish nuns were mistreated in various ways, priests were lynched and it wasn’t until 200 or so thousand served in the Union Army that people began to treat the Irish as Americans.
So tell me again about your troubles. I’ll nod politely and remember that yours were enslaved and mine were murdered. I’ll remember that there is no “United Irish College Fund” or “National Association for the Advancement of Indian People” and that such organizations would be deemed hopelessly racist. I’ll recall that there weren’t three amendments to the Constitution to provide equal rights to the Comanche, the Cherokee, the Dine and others. I’ll remember that the census counted your people as 3/5 for taxation purposes, but MINE WEREN’T EVEN CONSIDERED HUMAN OR AMERICAN UNTIL THE 1920′S!
Cry me a river, LS. We need the water out this way.
I’m an AMERICAN…first, last and always. I wore my country’s uniform and pledged my life to defend even racists like you and that sleazeball Wright. I can watch morons make the “tomahawk chop” and not be personally offended, and I can laugh at comments about leprechauns and “Lucky Charms” without going ballistic. Why? Because I can spot an idiot from twenty miles off and I know that most people aren’t idiots. David Duke, “Rev.” Wright and all the other racists are idiots…and I take them no more seriously than I take a heap of garbage, which, in the end, is what they are.
Just be glad you’re an American…and don’t obsess on race. It’s of no more importance than eye color…except to morons. EVERYONE’S ancestors were oppressed at sometime. Just get past it or it’ll fill you with so much hatred you’ll be chewed up inside…just like those losers Wright, Jackson, Duke, Sharpton and the rest of their ilk.
No go forth and sin no more.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
“So tell me again about your troubles. I’ll nod politely and remember that yours were enslaved and mine were murdered. I’ll remember that there is no “United Irish College Fund” or “National Association for the Advancement of Indian People” and that such organizations would be deemed hopelessly racist. I’ll recall that there weren’t three amendments to the Constitution to provide equal rights to the Comanche, the Cherokee, the Dine and others. I’ll remember that the census counted your people as 3/5 for taxation purposes, but MINE WEREN’T EVEN CONSIDERED HUMAN OR AMERICAN UNTIL THE 1920′S!”
So it is clear, Sharps Rifle, I wasn’t in any way devaluing the oppressive experiences of other minority groups; personally, I believe that the “American Indians” or “Native Americans” or whatever other names have been “assigned” to them, have been treated worse than any other group in the United States, historically.
However, I’m not crying about my troubles, although I could claim plenty if I so desired. I am simply refuting the insanity which is you all acting like the history of this country concerning African-Americans is just history and thus has no effect whatsoever on present day circumstances and is entirely eradicated today.
I’ll remember that “you all” were considered to not be citizens, but humans, while “niggers” were considered to be lower than cattle. I’ll remember that there are endless rooms full of ridiculous caricatures that made depictions of the devil seem civilized by comparison. I’ll remember that the first “ghettoes” in American histories were little sections deemed suitable only for “niggers”. I’m an AMERICAN… first, last, and always. My heritage and history is of men and women who wore my country’s uniform and pledged their lives to defend even those who were actively attacking them. I can watch people say ill-informed, ignorant, untrue statements about “them” and “black people” and laugh, and not go ballistic.
I’ll KNOW, just by being alive, and being treated like a lesser person or differently simply because of my skin color, that it is not racist to assume that a black child could possibly develop an anti-white sentiment, simply from living in the world that he lives in.
However, I don’t have an “anti-white” sentiment. I have an “anti-falsehood” sentiment.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 am
1920’s?!?!? Is this the same SHIITE your trying to bring back from your AFRICA along tribal and ethnic divides to Balkanize the United States?!? Who gives a flying reproductive act about the 1920’s, The American Civil War period and other past times that ALL have already been taken care of. Why don’t you go out and build a time machine and head back to the past and cry us a river. Liberal stupidity, will it never end? Hope this helps and have a nice day! ;-)
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 am
Mr. or Ms. Lipstick, please do not expose yourself as an idiot and actually take the time to read posts, or, at least, notice quotation marks around something. I was quoting the member speaking above; I’m sorry if I did not make that more clear to you.
Now, if you don’t mind, please spout at someone else. Unless you actually have something legitimate to say and not random crap that has nothing to do with what I’m talking about.
Hope this helps and have a nice day! ;-)
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
Although this is quite entertaining to watch, LS I must quibble with you on one point…
“I’ll remember that the first “ghettoes” in American histories were little sections deemed suitable only for “niggers”.”
Really? Precisely what are you talking about here? I’m sure the Irish, Italians, Poles, and other non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants that flooded into this country prior to the Civil War would have a tad to say about that. The first “ghettos” in the U.S. were not for blacks, but immigrants, primarily Irish or Eastern Europeans. Any freedmen living in these areas would have been a very tiny minority indeed.
Also…
“One does need to “stir up” anti-white sentiment. That can easily be had just by living.”
How very profound. No doubt, there are many whites who are openly racist. However, I would suggest that continuing to address the question of race in this country as though it were an exclusively a whites-hate-blacks issue only exacerbates the problem. As millions of whites like myself grow up, and every aspect of our education is devoted to “diversity” and “sensitivity,” and without ever once having committed an act of either overt or covert racism (many whites, particularly rural whites like myself, never even had the chance to commit any act of racism, for our community just wasn’t “diverse” enough), we are nevertheless told by our teachers, our politicians, our employers, our intellectuals that we really are an evil, oppressive people, regardless of who we are as individuals; that no matter our own individual experience, beliefs, or actions, we have been raised in a racist society, and are therefore undeniably, inescapably racist ourselves, simply because (gasp!) of our “socio-economic status,” which is rarely anything other than code for rich/poor-black/white.
I don’t think anybody here can seriously claim racism does not exist in this country, or outside of it, for that matter. What many here are frustrated with is the assumption that racism is a one-way, white-on-non-white street. It is that attitude, perpetuated in the media, pop culture, our schools, our institutions, and our government, that is a growing source of frustration for many whites. I’m sure you’ll have no problem poo-pooing this frustration, and you would be right in saying it in no way compares to 400+ years of slavery, Jim Crow, and Democratic dependency. It’s significance, however, lies not in its comparative severity (or lack thereof), but in its source. Repaying centuries of racism and maltreatment with centuries more of racism and maltreatment will not solve the problem. Injustice cannot be rectified with more injustice. Two wrongs don’t make a right. History shows two wrongs usually lead to a third wrong. Then a fourth. And so on.
The very programs put in place in some misguided attempt to correct the wrongs of the past are themselves unjust, and serve only to generate racism in segments of the white population where previously there was little. I am not so blind as to believe racism doesn’t exist. However, I am no more blind to the prospect that Affirmative Action has done more to hurt black/white relations than help; that the existence and government sanction of exclusively black organizations (in particular the Congressional Black Caucus, which refused a white congressman membership even though his constituency was almost exclusively black) is a foregone conclusion beyond debate, while any idea of forming exclusively white organizations is not only laughable but would have a reasonable expectation of government interference, if not outright prohibition; that the establishment of scholarships and financial assistance for blacks and other non-whites is not just accepted but encouraged, even subsidized by the government, while any attempt to establish similar programs for white students would be met with well-practiced outrage. This point in particular burns my butt, as it assumes that whites are by nature of their race able to afford college, regardless of their vaunted “socio-economic status.” And yes, while there is some government assistance available to white students, it’s availability is not contingent upon race, but economic need, yet its size fails to cover anything close to a college education. Apparently, there is another assumption here; that white parents are not only able but willing to pay for their children’s education.
Beyond all that is the glaring, unabashedly racist definition of “hate crime,” which only manages to appear when white commit crimes against non-whites (or straights on gays, men on women, “oppressors on the oppressed,” you know the drill). Two teenaged boys get in a fight, and during the scuffle, one of them shouts “F#$@ing Mexican!” Does he go to the Principal’s office for a long talk about detention, suspension, possibly expulsion? No. There isn’t time. A teacher has heard the racist epithet, and has called the local police. A few months later, that teenaged boy is spending a year in juvenile hall for his “hate crime.” And what about the other boy? What happens to him? Does anybody notice that the fight started over the Mexican boy’s attempted rape of the white boy’s sister? No. Is he arrested for bloodying her lip and knocking her unconscious in the girl’s bathroom? No. He gets the trip to the Principal’s office. Are his actions labeled a “hate crime,” since the girl he beat and tried to rape was white? No. He gets an apology from the Principal, because, according to the rules, he has to suspend the Mexican boy for four days for fighting on school grounds. Not to worry, though, the school has subsequently had a weeklong set of programs highlighting the history of racism in America, with special emphasis on “racial sensitivity.”
It’s this kind of glib, eye-winking double-standard that is driving white racism today. In my experience, if a white person is racist, it isn’t because they believe black people are inferior, it’s because they believe black people get breaks that white people do not. Or, like my brother, every black person they have ever met has shown them nothing but contempt, hostility, or aggression. What does it matter if those black people have been treated badly by other whites in the past. What responsibility does my brother bear for the sins of others? What responsibility do modern whites bear for the sins of our forefathers, sins which we have overcome not simply by the courage and perserverence of blacks, but by that of whites as well?
The story of American racism has never been simply white vs black. Were that the case, we would find ourselves in a society little different than where we started in 1776. Or 1620, for that matter. Yes, for centuries, blacks resisted slavery in any way they could, whether that be sabotage, violence, or flight, but it took the blood of white soldiers, spilt by other whites, to break their chains. Yes, for decades, blacks endured the torment of the Klan and the virtual serfdom of Jim Crow, braving dogs & firehoses & more murderous methods, but it took the judgement of white justices over the arguments of white lawyers to overturn the idea of “Separate but Equal,” it took the order of a white President enforce school desegregation on an all-white school, and it took the votes of white congressmen over to pass the Civil Rights Act, all against the violent protests of other whites. If whites are really so damnably racist, there is no way in hell any of that could ever have passed, no matter how fiercely blacks resisted.
I’ve prattled on long enough. I hope someday we can truly address American racism as the intricate social web that it is, pitting not just black against white but all against all. Instead, we stupidly simplify it, continually positing it as white on non-white, and in so doing, we ensure not only its perserverence but its vicious, cyclic hypocrisy as well.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:20 am
LS: Went flying right over your head, didn’t it?
Indian people weren’t made citizens of the United States until the 1920’s, and prior to that, were not even regarded as being human in the eyes of the law. Further, your ancestors had a war fought about freeing them…mine had wars fought to exterminate them. Your ancestors after that war were free to go anywhere in the US they wanted (and did). Mine were restricted to little corners of Oklahoma, Florida and other land that was thought to be too useless for any other purpose than housing “redskins.”
But what you also miss is that Indians (and most of the full bloods I know prefer to have tribal names be used, such as Comanche or Arapahoe…we “assign” our own names. We don’t need to have “leaders” tell us what we want to be called. My cousin John, who is full blood Comanche loathes the term “Native American.” “What’s someone who was born here and is legally a citizen? A visitor?” John’s pretty perceptive.), with notable exceptions, don’t hold grudges for the past. Nor do the Irish. My ancestors on both sides were hated simply for who they were…Catholic and immigrant, and for being on land that some farmer wanted.
Your little jab about ghettoes is pretty lame. Free blacks prior to the great migrations north weren’t segregated in northern cities. The Irish were. The Protestant majority considered the Irish to be uncivilized and barbaric (never mind that the Irish were Christian and quite civilized…the fact that the Irish were Catholic, largely illiterate due to British colonial rule of Ireland, and were willing to work any job, no matter how repulsive for whatever pay they could get, rendered them barbaric in the eyes of “polite society”) and many cities, New York, for example, DID segregate the Irish by law. This was in the 1840’s and 1850’s. De jure segregation of blacks started much later.
Also, has it ever occurred to you that perhaps the reason you’ve been treated “lesser” isn’t because you’re black, but because you’re a jerk with a chip on her shoulder? Frankly, I could give a rip about someone’s race…but a jerk always gives me gas. I have no use for jerks, and you’re a solid gold one. And from what I’ve read, you’d be a jerk if you were Chinese, let alone black.
Now, in the words of my esteemed friend DW, you are free to bugger off. And in the words of my cousin John, “Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!”
(He’s a card, he really is.)
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
“I’ll KNOW, just by being alive, and being treated like a lesser person or differently simply because of my skin color, that it is not racist to assume that a black child could possibly develop an anti-white sentiment, simply from living in the world that he lives in.”
Poor black people aren’t poor because of racism, theyre poor because theyre lazy and dont take advantage of the oppurtunitites given to them in this country. Black people aren’t treated as lesser people they just use racism as an excuse for their problems because they dont want to be held accountable.
“Please stop drinking the first-grade history textbook kool-aid and learn your American history.”
Actually right now im being force fed Zinn like most other college students, its funny that liberals say this given the fact that they write the textbooks, I mean the ussr collapsed because of “corruption and lack of resources” lenin, he was a swell guy, we murdered 40 million native americans by giving them all blankets…. yeah…
Youre not black. And youre not a republican. Go away fool, youre just trying to turn attention away from the issues with your endless ranting like the typical liberal. I have never heard a black person say “rape your women” or refer to white people like that. I know youre not a chick either, i can tell.
Hey SR im part cherokee:)
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
invertigo2004, you seem to be the only person with apparent sense involved in this discussion. Thank you for your rational and interesting thoughts.
Now, to revert back to sarcasm, thank YOU, Sharps Rifle for your assault upon my character and assumption that you know anything about me at all. Jerk is something I can safely say I’ve never been called, but then again, maybe I just haven’t gotten into heated arguments with people that believe that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves, when any non-elementary school textbook will tell you that it most definitely was not. “Free blacks prior to the great migrations north weren’t segregated in northern cities.” Really? That’s quite interesting. I’d love to see from whence this lovely, inaccurate view of American History you have came from. It’s actually quite amusing.
I also love how everyone here just ASSUMES that I’m so how “complaining” about the past, or that I want a handout, or “my 40 acres & a mule”, when it’s been expressed that my feelings are entirely to the contrary. The whole basis of my stream of consciousness in these posts center around y’all’s premises of racism (in the white-to-black) direction not existing today and racism (in the black-to-white direction) existing today. You most definitely do not need to explain to me the long and storied history of minority groups getting treated quite atrociously.
But, why am I even speaking? It seems that all of you, with the possible exception of invertigo2004, have neglected to read my posts anywhere near in their entirety. You keep on ignoring the questions I raise and the points I bring up in favor of twisting a half a line to get your own self angry and spout off some crap that I’m not talking about.
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
“I just haven’t gotten into heated arguments with people that believe that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves, when any non-elementary school textbook will tell you that it most definitely was not.”
Actually elementary/ highschool textbooks do say that the civil war wasn’t caused by slavery, the civil war happened because the south left the union, but the south wouldnt have left the union if it weren’t for slavery in any case. Good old chomsky.
And youre the only one im a heated argument - with yourself,
OMG I CAN CAPITILIZE LETTERS TOO…IM AN OBESE HE-SHE WHITE LIBERAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESOR RAISING THE PRETEND-BLACK-REPUBLICAN POWER FIST AGAINST THE MAN….. IMPOTENT CYBER RAGE ARRGG….
In the 1700s not all white men had the right to vote either. And if black men were considered lower than cattle then why oh why did the government allow black men to vote before white women?
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Candy: Cherokee are fun folks…can’t swing a dead cat in Oklahoma without hitting someone who either is Cherokee or part Cherokee. My cousin John works for the Cherokee tribe (which is odd, since he’s Comanche, but money is money…) and he’s said nobody there throws a barbecue like the Cherokee Tribal Board can.
Sure beats the “joys” of Irish cuisine…
LS: As far as the north fighting to free the slaves, the average Union grunt enlisted to fight for the Union, as the average Confederate enlisted to defend his rights. But after Antietam (Sharpsville for those of a Confederate leaning), the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued, thus making abolition a war aim. Thus, the War became a War to preserve the Union AS WELL AS to end slavery. Or it became a war for Southern Independence as well as to maintain property and economic rights as perceived ante bellum, based upon your perspective.
Now like it or not, 200 thousand or so Irish fought to free people whom those same Irish feared would take their jobs after the War.
You’re welcome, LS.
And if no one’s ever called you a jerk, maybe it’s because they were too polite to say what was truly being thought.
Now, once more, go forth and sin no more. I don’t suffer fools gladly, and some of your racist gas is really trying my patience.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:33 am
“Now like it or not, 200 thousand or so Irish fought to free people whom those same Irish feared would take their jobs after the War.”
That’s nice. And? Is there a point to that entire paragraph? Does that have anything to do with my statement whatsoever? No, didn’t think so.
I’m sorry that “racist gas” is afflicting you, but I have yet to see you actually address any statement of mine at all, let alone something you could construe as being racist.
“IMPOTENT CYBER RAGE ARRGG….” lol. You’re an obese he-she white liberal? That’s unfortunate. I’d be thoroughly disturbed if you were indeed a community college professor.
“And if black men were considered lower than cattle then why oh why did the government allow black men to vote before white women?”
Is that an actual question? Like, is this really a serious statement? I believe I already addressed this many posts back. Why are you trying to argue anything concerning that? African-Americans for several hundred years were legally seen as 3/5 of a human being. That’s a fact. African-Americans were strenuously disenfranchised and it was legally allowable until 1965. That’s also a fact. African-Americans were treated worse than animals, similar in the American experience only to the misnomered “American Indians”. That is not necessarily a fact (though the first part is), but is a general consensus agreed upon by virtually every historical scholar in the United States and those in the world who study the United States. There’s no need to argue about such things. This doesn’t make one group better than the other; this doesn’t mean that this was 100% of the time the case in every experience between blacks & whites; however, to discount the history of this country and the African diaspora by the condemnation of people “not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps” and “crying & looking for a handout” is absurd.
So, now, go forth and sin no more. And, also, beware of using the word fool so lightly. [See Matthew 5:22] :)
March 6th, 2008 at 12:54 am
LS is a perfect example of what is wrong with our public education system.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Ah, LS you are Black, you are put down by “The Man”, You are bitter, You are angry and you are misunderstood. Fine, now shaddup and GET A JOB! Better yet get two jobs, like I DID when I was in college. It will keep you from being put down, feeling bitter and angry and misunderstood. Hope this helps again. ;-) Have a nice day……………………
March 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
““IMPOTENT CYBER RAGE ARRGG….” lol. You’re an obese he-she white liberal? That’s unfortunate. I’d be thoroughly disturbed if you were indeed a community college professor.”
Wow I havent heard “I know you are but what am I?” since middle school, and coupled with the insidious “LOL” internet term, hmmm I dare say you’re insanely retarded.
But you are still missing the point, if black men men were allowed to vote before women then obviously women were considered inferior to black men, so technically they were more “oppressed” or whatever. The End.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Sharps, I find it rather disappointing that someone who’s previous assertions seemed educated would make such an egregious error as to purport that the Emancipation Proclamation had even the slightest thing to do with freeing slaves. IN FACT, when the EP was issued England was very near entering the war and siding with the Confederacy thinking that they might rejoin England after the war. Knowing that he couldn’t win the War of Northern Aggression if the South had England’s support he created ending slavery as a new goal of his war. The desperate attempt worked, and between slavery becoming the pretense of the war and a Confederate defeat at Gettysburg England was persuaded to remain a spectator allowing the Yankees to eventually win the war.
There, now that I feel better about this forums war history blunders I can move to the matter at hand. Racism in this country is no longer white-black or white-anybody. Instead, I would argue, that the white man is the most discriminated against of all people in this country. Has anyone ever seen a post integration job application that says, “black men need not apply?” What about, “White women need not apply?” No on both counts, yet white men need not apply still appears on Federal applications for some jobs today. We have “African American” Student Unions, the NAACP, more accurately named the Ntl Association for the Advancement of Blacks because they don’t aid Indians(American or Eastern), Chinese, Middle-eastern or anyone else, hell we even have the black caucus. Why, in light of all these organizations, is it so wrong for white people to organize? Why no white student union, why can’t I have college paid for because my white parents can’t help, and why the hell do I have to call you African Americans?
Does anyone on this post know an African American? A real one, the kind that was born in Africa and immigrated? I do, several actually, and they have one thing in common, all of them are white, and all of them and all came to this country because of the ferocity and hatred of post-apartheid BLACKS. When we ended slavery here, blacks tried, and even now over 100 years later, are still trying to take control of the country and subjugate whites to a position of constant fear. They succeeded in South Africa, in Rhodesia, and other places in Africa, some of which were originally inhabited by whites, and now those whites are forced to run from their homes for fear of their lives and in order to prosper and care for their families.
Just one other quick comment, can someone please explain to me why we have Black churches? We don’t have white churches, blacks are welcome in every Christian church I have ever attended, yet they feel the need to separate themselves from everyone else when they worship anyway, Maybe the problem is that they didn’t want to be integrated in the first place…
March 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
War of Northern Aggression …to that I have but two words: Fort Sumter.
He who fires first commits aggression. Additionally, it was Reb troops who opened fire on Federals at Carthage, MO two weeks prior to First Manassas. And before you give me that “damnyankee” line, my great great grandfather was a Texas Reb (9th Texas Infantry). I take deep pride in the gray uniform he wore, but “War of Northern Aggression”? Please.
War of Southern Independence, War of the Rebellion, War Between the States, War for the Union…but “Northern Aggression”? Only if you buy into propaganda. Personally I prefer “War of Southern Politicians Seeking to Maintain Their Power by Convincing Average Folks that This Was About Preserving Their Rights”…or how about what troops on BOTH sides called it: Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight.
And yes, I AM very aware of Lincoln’s military and diplomatic aims in issuing the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. If you take close note to what I said, I DID point out in my comment that emancipation BECAME a war aim after Sharpsburg. Wars have a way of changing things, and if emancipation wasn’t an initial war aim at the time of Carthage and Manassas, then it was good that it BECAME an aim, and for whatever reason. Ben Butler *spit* had been issuing emancipation orders in areas where he had been local commander since late ‘61 or early ‘62. His rationale, politically motivated abolitionist that he was, was to deny slave labor to the Reb military. I forget if it was Butler *spit* or a different officer, but I recall a situation where a slave owner in Virginia came to the Federal general comanding the local garrison demanding the return of his slaves, who had escaped into Union lines. The slaveowner stated that under terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, his slaves had to be returned to him. The Union general replied that law only applied in the United States, and since Virginia claimed to have left the United States and joined the Confederate States, then the slaveowner was in a foreign country where US law didn’t apply, and thus, his slaves were now free and he had no claim on them.
My point in relating that anecdote is that Lincoln was very aware of how slaves were being used to support the Reb war effort, as well as the diplomatic situation with European countries, thus it was obvious that freeing the slaves, or at least issuing an order doing so, would make diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy difficult for those countries, since they were already on record as having condemned slavery. As Pete Longstreet said in Gettysburg, “We should have freed the slaves, then fired on Fort Sumter.”
I don’t, and never have, accepted that a majority of Union troops enlisted to free the slaves…not even R.G. Shaw, who came from an abolition background, went into the Army for that purpose. Likewise, the average Reb didn’t enlist to maintain slavery. But the War DID take that character on, especially post-January 1863. My attitude has always been that MOST people are well enough educated to know that the War began as a question of secession, then shifted to secession and slavery, and ended with the country FINALLY becoming the United States, rather than just a gaggle of states who generally agreed to being united. No amount of historical revisionism can deny that slavery WAS an issue in the War…hell, Nebraska and Kansas were an issue due to Southern desires to expand slavery into the west…and THAT was to maintain Southern political dominance! You see, I don’t view the Confederates as being the aggrieved parties…since the Tariff Crisis late in Andrew Jackson’s presidency, there was always a certain percentage of Southerners (mostly in South Carolina) who kept advocating secession…and it was Jackson…a SOUTHERNER whose belief was “Our Federal Union: It must and SHALL be preserved!“. It was Southerners who were making aggressive moves prior to Fort Sumter…and if secession itself isn’t a move of aggression, then what is? Firing on a US Army post, perhaps? Seizing arsenals and other Federal property? How about taking whole regiments prisoner, as was attempted in Texas? Perhaps passing state laws to intercept mail from the North, because it might contain abolitionist material, as some Southern states did in the 1850’s?
Now before you condemn me for taking Wendell Phillips’ and William Lloyd Garrison’s parts in this…guess again. For every secesh, there was a big-mouthed abolitionist calling for a war to free the slaves. But while the secesh had the guts to put on gray and fight, the abolitionists got a sudden case of “war is immoral” fever and wouldn’t put on blue and put their money where their lousy mouths were. I have more respect for Edmund Ruffin, who fired the first shot at Fort Sumter, than I will EVER have for any given abolitionist speechifier. They’d make their impassioned addresses, whip up a few people to go down and enlist for God, Country, Uncle Abe, and freeing the oppressed…but when the time came for them to put up or shut up, all of a sudden they had a deep, personal opposition to war (and three hundred dollars to pay for a substitute to go in their place). I guess maybe they’d seen the casualty lists from Shiloh, Sharpsburg and the Seven Days and that taught them “morality….”
One other point that was made about knowing “actual” African Americans…does my friend Mike’s Nigerian wife count? How about the Nuer and Dinka students I’ve had? Or perhaps the Nuer girl I know who was held as a slave in Saudi Arabia before she was bought and brought here to be freed by some American Christians? (Nuer is a Sudanese tribe, for those of you in New Braunfels…same with the Dinka).
Yes, my ancestors were Confederate (the ones who weren’t Comanche). And I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I’m glad the Confederacy lost. They were WRONG. Secession, slavery, spreading slavery for political purposes, wanting to maintain an outdated and un-productive economic system…the South was becoming a drag on the whole country. Jim Crow kept them a drag until the 20th Century. Thank God the Confederacy lost…thank God for us being able to become the UNITED States…FINALLY!
Now if we can just get a few of the remaining racist morons (and they know who they are…Jesse, Al, David, Maxine, Reverend Wright…among others) to just shut up and get with the program…
March 11th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Hey Sharps,
Whew…… Excellent post, excellent.