All Racism is Learned. The question is, “Who is Teaching it to Our Kids?”
“If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” — John F. Kennedy - selling the country on Affirmative Action.
Affirmative Action was created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Its purpose was to stop racist hiring practices in America. In a nutshell, it said, “You cannot refuse to hire someone based on the color of their skin.” But what it is interpreted to mean is, “You must hire a black person simply because he is black.” Or, depending on which side of the color spectrum you are on, “You cannot hire the white person.”
Most people who voted for Obama, did so because he is black. Many Democrats would have voted for him even if he ran as a Republican, and many Republicans also voted for him because he is black. America needed to produce our first Black President.
Affirmative Action has grown to include all people of color, nationalities, genders, and religions.
The natural law of “Cause and Effect” takes over whenever a new government program comes out. No matter what the intended desire of the program, the exact opposite effect almost always occurs. The war on drugs. The war on poverty. Today, there are more homeless people and more drug overdoses than ever before in our history.
In 1930, Will Rogers asked, “Why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.”
We all know what Kennedy had in mind, what his goal was. America, 100 years after the civil war, was still producing entirely too many racists. In an attempt to fix it, Affirmative Action simply said, “Stop it!”
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The people who need to “Stop it!” are parents. And recently, teachers. Racism is not born into us, it’s not bred into us, it’s taught to us.
What Kennedy didn’t understand in his plan to fix racism, was that he would create even more. You can’t call attention to the symptom, not address the root cause, and expect a better result. Instead, you end up with everyone calling each other names.
The effect of Affirmative Action on the country was a belief that all of a sudden, black people were “entitled”, it made them “special”.
President Obama was off-limits to most of the mainstream media and half the population. If you said anything derogatory about him, you were labeled a racist. Talk show hosts who had no issues with making fun of every president up to that point, now suddenly were full of praise.
Granted, most people didn’t care. But those who had been raised racist — both black and white — now had even more reason to be. Both sides were equally racist towards the other.
To understand this, remember as children how we were told to, “Watch out for your little brother”, or “Stop teasing your sister”, or “Let the little kids play, too”. All directives designed to regulate your natural instincts. But because it was taught early, you learned it, grew into it . You became a person of compassion, love, and responsibility.
What Kennedy tried to do was too late. When an adult commits a crime, he goes to jail. When a child does wrong, he gets training and another chance. In most cases this works and the child grows up to be a contributing member of society. But it rarely works for adults with ingrained habits.
When the PC Police say, “You don’t have enough (fill-in-the-blank) type of people”, what we hear is, “You have too many white people.” Or worse, too many straight, white, male people. When they say, “You need to hire, allow, enlist, recruit, more people of color, or gender, or sexual preference,” we hear, “Fire some of your straight, white, male personnel.”
You cannot legislate human behavior. Abraham Lincoln, The Bill of Rights, the Civil War, JFK, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Affirmative Action, Obama, ad nauseam, all tried to regulate human behavior.
People are not born racist. They are taught. And in some families, they are encouraged. What happens when you try to regulate it? Instead of making everyone equal positively, we end up making everyone equal negatively.
What does that mean?
“White people” can buy a house, get a loan, go to school, get a job, enjoy capitalism. Affirmative Action Regulation makes it illegal to deny those things to people of color. White people can also be rednecks, KKK, Neo-Nazis, racists.
Affirmative Action makes it legal for people of color to do the same thing, to form equally racist groups full of equally hateful attitudes. Black Panthers, Brothers of Islam, Black Power, and Black Lives Matter.
Affirmative Action was supposed to allow the oppressed to have the same opportunities as everyone else. Unfortunately, the results were the perception that everyone else was giving up their rights. If two people are looking for the same college or the same job, Affirmative Action rules in favor of the oppressed, thus making “white people” the new oppressed.
You can’t regulate human behavior. All that does is make people of color equally racist. But you can start teaching and encouraging better human beings.
You can push for all colors to stop talking trash about the other. You can stop watching tv shows and news channels that perpetuate the hate. You can quit reading and sharing and liking hate-filled racist rants on the internet.
Racism isn’t a “white people” thing. It’s a human thing.
An excellent way to get started is to watch a movie called, The Freedom Writers.
Or the Gods Must Be Crazy.
Or a Few Good Men.
You can also read, The Diary of Anne Frank, or the Freedom Writers Diary. Or anything written by Erin Gruwell.
And remember the story of Chicken Little crying, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” When a tiny sparrow hears her, he lies down on his back with his feet up in the air. A passing crow asks, “Why are doing that?”
The sparrow says, “To hold up the sky.”
The crow laughs and says, “But you’re too small to do any good.”
The tiny sparrow responds, “One does what one can.”
What can you do? You can start by stopping. Stop hating. Stop sharing hate. Stop encouraging hate. Stop listening to hate channels. Stop reading hate media. Instead, start encouraging others, inspire them. Lead by example. Teach your children. Teach your family. Teach your friends. This goes for all people of all color! It’s not just “white people”.
One person can’t fix it. But one person can make a difference.
Read more:
www.freedomwritersfoundation.org
Thanks for reading!