Jim Hlavac
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Domestic Affairs
Despite all the recent theories and statements that race is not real, the reality is
that most people still perceive that there are separate races. These races are
considered by all people when they think about anything. Besides the apparent lack
of DNA evidence of race, and how we all share certain genetic markers the reality is
that we look different, and that's enough to cause trouble.
On top of that there is the history of Race in America, a woefully bad experience
that has rendered the nation in two violently and has divided the nation for the last few
hundred years. There is no easy solution because no one quite knows what the goal
is. There are some blacks who want to keep separate and there are some whites who
want separation. Then there are those who want some sort of equality, but not
necessarily mixing. Then there are those who want to have every one living in happy
harmony. And of course, there are those who want the races to eventually just
intermarry and then be done with the whole issue.
It is this last course of action that is taking place. Ever so slowly, and not just
between blacks and whites. There is a general mixing of what we call separate races.
But there are also lots of confusing elements to race. What used to be black and
white, is now a range of colors. Where do dark skinned Indians and dark skinned
Arabs fall in the race continuum? Where do Hispanics -- whom can be of any race?
What about Northern Asians from Southern Asians -- that is Chinese and Japanese as
different from Indonesians and Polynesians?
Further, why should we be concerned about race at all?
The black and white divide is still the big issue of this country. And those
Euroepans who chide us for what took place here forget that they were the ones who
not only institutied the system, but furnished the slaves in the first place. The whole
idea though of reparations for slavery runs into the fact that the forebearers of the
vast majority of white Americans arrived here after slavery and faced their own levels
of discrimination. How would we ever apportion the blame and from whom would we
extract the payments? How much could we ever pay? And if we paid it would that
somehow solve the problems? I doubt we can ever find satisfactory answers to the
problem. Besides that, many blacks aren't descended from slaves at all, but arrived
here much later too.
All the science telling us there is no pure race will not stop extremeist on either
side of the issue. Nor will it really begin to be accepted by people living today. Race
as a social construct is real for the foreseeable future.
Most of the statistics that people sputter out about race are usually wrong. The
vast majority of blacks are not on "welfare," they don't have kids to get more money.
Blacks make up just 12 or 13% of the population, yet many whites talk about how half
the country is black.
Another situation little addressed, especially in the South where it is most
prevalent, but whites did everything they could for more than a century after the Civil
War to keep blacks poor and uneducated. Now a hundred years later they are
reaping what they sowed. And they are surprised. You will hear among many whites,
and not a few blacks, about the uneducated and underemployed and unmotivated
black underclass -- the creation of which was exactly the sole purpose of many
government programs at the state and even federal level. White America worked
hard at keeping blacks down, and so we got what we wanted. It's no time to complain
about it now.
It's time to apologize and move on -- not forget, nor forgive, that's up to individuals
according to their beliefs. On the other hand, though, it is time for white and black
America to really address some of these root causes of black poverty -- which will
mean not some sort of government program, but government getting out of the way of
the black entrepreneurial class.
that most people still perceive that there are separate races. These races are
considered by all people when they think about anything. Besides the apparent lack
of DNA evidence of race, and how we all share certain genetic markers the reality is
that we look different, and that's enough to cause trouble.
On top of that there is the history of Race in America, a woefully bad experience
that has rendered the nation in two violently and has divided the nation for the last few
hundred years. There is no easy solution because no one quite knows what the goal
is. There are some blacks who want to keep separate and there are some whites who
want separation. Then there are those who want some sort of equality, but not
necessarily mixing. Then there are those who want to have every one living in happy
harmony. And of course, there are those who want the races to eventually just
intermarry and then be done with the whole issue.
It is this last course of action that is taking place. Ever so slowly, and not just
between blacks and whites. There is a general mixing of what we call separate races.
But there are also lots of confusing elements to race. What used to be black and
white, is now a range of colors. Where do dark skinned Indians and dark skinned
Arabs fall in the race continuum? Where do Hispanics -- whom can be of any race?
What about Northern Asians from Southern Asians -- that is Chinese and Japanese as
different from Indonesians and Polynesians?
Further, why should we be concerned about race at all?
The black and white divide is still the big issue of this country. And those
Euroepans who chide us for what took place here forget that they were the ones who
not only institutied the system, but furnished the slaves in the first place. The whole
idea though of reparations for slavery runs into the fact that the forebearers of the
vast majority of white Americans arrived here after slavery and faced their own levels
of discrimination. How would we ever apportion the blame and from whom would we
extract the payments? How much could we ever pay? And if we paid it would that
somehow solve the problems? I doubt we can ever find satisfactory answers to the
problem. Besides that, many blacks aren't descended from slaves at all, but arrived
here much later too.
All the science telling us there is no pure race will not stop extremeist on either
side of the issue. Nor will it really begin to be accepted by people living today. Race
as a social construct is real for the foreseeable future.
Most of the statistics that people sputter out about race are usually wrong. The
vast majority of blacks are not on "welfare," they don't have kids to get more money.
Blacks make up just 12 or 13% of the population, yet many whites talk about how half
the country is black.
Another situation little addressed, especially in the South where it is most
prevalent, but whites did everything they could for more than a century after the Civil
War to keep blacks poor and uneducated. Now a hundred years later they are
reaping what they sowed. And they are surprised. You will hear among many whites,
and not a few blacks, about the uneducated and underemployed and unmotivated
black underclass -- the creation of which was exactly the sole purpose of many
government programs at the state and even federal level. White America worked
hard at keeping blacks down, and so we got what we wanted. It's no time to complain
about it now.
It's time to apologize and move on -- not forget, nor forgive, that's up to individuals
according to their beliefs. On the other hand, though, it is time for white and black
America to really address some of these root causes of black poverty -- which will
mean not some sort of government program, but government getting out of the way of
the black entrepreneurial class.
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