Quote of the Day: Racism Still Exists in America

 

“One of the things I’ve heard is that if you acknowledge the problem [racism] then you are playing into the left’s narrative. And I want to say: But it’s not their narrative! We should take it back! It’s our narrative! There would be no civil rights legislation were it not for the Republican Party. Who led the fight to abolish slavery in this country?” —Kay Coles James

Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation, has experienced a level of notoriety lately due to attacks by Tucker Carlson for her belief that racism still exists in this country. She wrote a recent opinion piece for Fox News expressing her views. As a black woman and a conservative, she has seen important changes in this country on questions of race, and she doesn’t believe there is systemic racism; she does believe, however, that racism does still exist, and that conservatives should use the tools they have to deal with it. As an example, she writes about voucher programs as a way to empower black families to have a voice in educating their children. In addition, she has set up the Gloucester Institute that operates leadership and educational programs for minority college students. She also believes that efforts like the 1619 Project create a false narrative that creates more problems than it solves.

To me, the primary issue is not whether racism exists; I believe it does exist, but in small amounts. Instead, we should be asking whether it exists to the degree that we, Republicans in particular, should be developing solutions that train black Americans to be problem-solvers in new and creative ways that will work in these times.

Many of us will acknowledge that some of the most debilitating social programs initiated in the 1960s by the Left have done the most to handicap black Americans. Is it possible, knowing the resistance we may face, that we can reverse that damage, empower black Americans, and reconcile our differences? Will black Americans be receptive to programs we could offer to them, given the current climate?

President Trump has certainly made strides in providing opportunities for black Americans. Should we be doing even more?

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  1. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    Arahant (View Comment):

    JennaStocker (View Comment):
    Is there no blushing emoji??!

    😊😊😊

    Well now I need an “enlightened” emoji

    • #31
  2. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):
    Kay Coles James is still working off the first definition; I hope she is able to help reclaim the word. 

    That’s the impression I had, @ontheleftcoast. I’m not sure she’s made that transition, but it would be great to have a black Conservative join the ranks of Sowell and Williams.

    • #32
  3. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    JennaStocker (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    JennaStocker (View Comment):
    Is there no blushing emoji??!

    😊😊😊

    Well now I need an “enlightened” emoji

    🙀😵💡🌩🚨

    • #33
  4. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    Arahant (View Comment):

    JennaStocker (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    JennaStocker (View Comment):
    Is there no blushing emoji??!

    😊😊😊

    Well now I need an “enlightened” emoji

    🙀😵💡🌩🚨

    And that is how one gets the final word. (Just don’t tell my husband!)

    • #34
  5. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    How can we end stupidity?

    Isn’t that more dangerous than racism?

     

    • #35
  6. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):
    Back to my first sentence. I believe modern day civil rights groups promote the idea of systemic racism with the goal to not stop until there is not a single racist left in this country.

    @stad, I think they will act perpetually to make white Americans feel guilty for something we have not done and do not believe!

    My great grandfather was in the Klan, and a great-great- (forgot how many “greats”) father owned 31 slaves.  No mention in the family history what his business was or why he had them.

    However, I feel absolutely zero guilt about my personal or my Southern heritage.  It entitled me no white privilege to get where I am now in life, so I wish the left would stop bellyaching about how “easy” I had it being white . . .

    • #36
  7. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    EHerring (View Comment):
    We rose up and eliminated “systemic” racism. Critical race theory is an effort to create “systemic” racism, only this time against white people. It is a poison that will damage race relations in addition to removing a motivation for one to rise up and overcome one’s own weaknesses that impede success, as Sowell has pointed out.

    If anything, it will create a backlash resulting in real bias against blacks, thus erasing the progress that has been made.  Then again, this is what the left wants . . .

    • #37
  8. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):
    Kay Coles James is still working off the first definition; I hope she is able to help reclaim the word.

    That’s the impression I had, @ontheleftcoast. I’m not sure she’s made that transition, but it would be great to have a black Conservative join the ranks of Sowell and Williams.

    What with the commanding heights of culture held by intersectionalists, the old definition is being eclipsed. It’s not sufficient not to be racist. You much be actively “antiracist.” Remember “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem?”

    • #38
  9. GLDIII Temporarily Essential Reagan
    GLDIII Temporarily Essential
    @GLDIII

    JennaStocker (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    JennaStocker (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    JennaStocker (View Comment):
    Is there no blushing emoji??!

    😊😊😊

    Well now I need an “enlightened” emoji

    🙀😵💡🌩🚨

    And that is how one gets the final word. (Just don’t tell my husband!)

    I am sure he knows, but keeps his power dry….

    • #39
  10. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    GLDIII Temporarily Essential (View Comment):
    I am sure he knows, but keeps his power dry….

    His powder, too.

    • #40
  11. GLDIII Temporarily Essential Reagan
    GLDIII Temporarily Essential
    @GLDIII

    Arahant (View Comment):

    GLDIII Temporarily Essential (View Comment):
    I am sure he knows, but keeps his power dry….

    His powder, too.

    This what I get for playing hookie during work hours, the job keeps sneaking back in.

    • #41
  12. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    How deep has intersectionality/systemic racism gone?

    Chase Standage, a US Navy Midshipman in his last year at Annapolis, is fighting expulsion for allegedly racist social media posts. He is an honor student and the son of two LAPD officers.

    Chase Standage, a 21-year-old white midshipman hoping for a career as fighter pilot, was widely condemned on social media in June after he tweeted that Breonna Taylor, killed by police in a botched drug raid in Louisville, Kentucky, “received justice” on the night she was shot and that Antifa protesters and rioters are “terrorists.”

    “Go ahead, cut funds to the police,” he tweeted at one point. “Community policing by building relations is expensive and timely, anyways. Bullets, on the other hand, are cheap and in ready supply.”

    His attorney:

    Here is the bottom line: the BLM and Anti-Racist movements’ insistence that they reserve unto themselves the sole right to define what does or does not constitute racism in this country – an insistence unconditionally adopted and embraced by the Naval Academy Command leadership – is antithetical to free speech, and constitutes viewpoint discrimination. Our lawsuit also alleges deprivation of due process under the Fifth Amendment. Given the Academy’s total buy-in and constant, mandatory espousal of the BLM and Anti-Racist mantras, MIDN Standage could not possibly have received fair hearings, any more than a prisoner in a re-education camp could

     

    • #42
  13. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Susan Quinn:

    President Trump has certainly made strides in providing opportunities for black Americans. Should we be doing even more?

    See President Trump’s Platinum Plan, publicly announced a week before the presidential debate. He says yes, with specifics.

    • #43
  14. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2020/08/25/van-jones-tells-cnn-panel-theres-no-denying-what-trump-has-done-for-black-community-n2574987

     

    https://www.breitbart.com/education/2019/09/12/fact-check-trump-increased-funds-for-black-colleges-17/

     

     

     

    • #44
  15. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    Racism vs systemic racism is a dispute about who owns the word and the culture. Wilfred McClay made that point as the guest on an episode of The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders.

    One of the things that gave Martin Luther King’s argument such power is that he was speaking to an America that was still fairly Christian, and he was challenging American Christians to put up or shut up religiously as well as challenging society as a whole to put up or shut up about those “all men are created equal” and “equal protection under the law” things.

    That America is gone; Marxist doctrine swept through academia, through Hollywood, through corporate America, and through most churches and synagogues. It offers a new covenant, and systemic racism is part of its theology.

    Kay Coles James is still working off the first definition; I hope she is able to help reclaim the word.

    I was in high school in the 1960s, and took a class in the English department that was called “The Bible as Literature.” The teacher (a very nice white lady) and at least half of the students were regular churchgoers, black and white. Of the secular students, a disproportionate number were Jewish.

    Each week, the teacher and many of the churchgoing students would go as a group to one or another of their various churches; I remember them confirming the details on Friday and talking about it before Monday’s class. I am certain that that was due to Dr. King’s influence.

    The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

    • #45
  16. CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Thread Hijacker
    @CarolJoy

    Stad (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn: Kay Cole James, president of the Heritage Foundation, has experienced a level of notoriety lately due to attacks by Tucker Carlson for her belief that racism still exists in this country.

    As long as there are human beings, racism will exist. However, there is no systemic racism in this country. By systemic, I mean there are no laws on the books that promote discrimination (although some “diversity initiatives” clearly are). There are also legal remedies for anyone who suffers discrimination, with armies of civil rights lawyers ready to charge into court.

    Back to my first sentence. I believe modern day civil rights groups promote the idea of systemic racism with the goal to not stop until there is not a single racist left in this country. Because this is impossible, these groups have a perpetual mission and can continue to raise money from the duped.

    Stad, for me every word you write ring true.

    But it is not only  that this uber cause of defeating racism by being anti racist is simply not possible. Rather, what is occurring now is that the AntiFa and the BLM “anti racists” must be allowed to have their way. Apparently their supporters claim, they must be allowed to do anything they want to do  until not a single instance of racism, including any actions  that might be portrayed as disrespect toward a person of color can be indicated. And should we somehow miraculously arrive at a place where there are no more activities such as disrespect occurring, there will be a perpetual need for  “hate speech” laws, and also thought police.

    Why is the couple in St Louis being indicted for defending their property? The Mccloskeys refused to avoid making the rioters nervous, and that is disrespect and by extension is proof of their being racist. So let’s just make the liberals lives easier and surrender their guns, right?

    • #46
  17. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Jim George (View Comment):
    On the unspeakably damaging and historically fraudulent 1619 project, I just noted yesterday that a number of scholars had signed a statement calling for the Nobel Prize Committee to revoke the Nobel Prize it had given this piece of propaganda, citing the several studies which had been done of this “historical research” to show that much of it was made up out of whole cloth and/or the fevered anti-White imagination of Nikole Hannah-Jones

    Pulitzer, not Nobel.

     

    • #47
  18. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    Jim George (View Comment):
    On the unspeakably damaging and historically fraudulent 1619 project, I just noted yesterday that a number of scholars had signed a statement calling for the Nobel Prize Committee to revoke the Nobel Prize it had given this piece of propaganda, citing the several studies which had been done of this “historical research” to show that much of it was made up out of whole cloth and/or the fevered anti-White imagination of Nikole Hannah-Jones

    Pulitzer, not Nobel.

     

    Named in honor of Joseph Pulitzer. Co-inventor, with William Randolph Hearst, of yellow journalism. The tribute lives down to the honoree.

    All poor Willie got as a tribute was Citizen Kane.

    • #48
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