Who Is Racist?

[_Droopy]

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/thomas-sow ... t-2/print/

Who Is Racist?

By Thomas Sowell

I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.

Apparently other Americans also recognize that the sources of racism are different today from what they were in the past. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 31 percent of blacks think that most blacks are racists, while 24 percent of blacks think that most whites are racist.

The difference between these percentages is not great, but it is remarkable nevertheless. After all, generations of blacks fought the white racism from which they suffered for so long. If many blacks themselves now think that most other blacks are racist, that is startling.

The moral claims advanced by generations of black leaders — claims that eventually touched the conscience of the nation and turned the tide toward civil rights for all — have now been cheapened by today’s generation of black “leaders,” who act as if it is all just a matter of whose ox is gored.

Even in legal cases involving terrible crimes — the O.J. Simpson murder trial or the charges of gang rape against Duke University students — many black “leaders” and their followers have not waited for facts about who was guilty and who was not, but have immediately taken sides, based on who was black and who was white.

Among whites, according to the same Rasmussen poll, 38 percent consider most blacks racist and 10 percent consider most whites racist.

Broken down by politics, the same poll showed that 49 percent of Republicans consider most blacks racist, as do 36 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, just 29 percent of Americans as a whole think race relations are getting better, while 32 percent think race relations are getting worse. The difference is too close to call, but the fact that it is so close is itself painful — and perhaps a warning sign for where we are heading.

Is this what so many Americans, both black and white, struggled for, over the decades and generations, to try to put the curse of racism behind us — only to reach a point where retrogression in race relations now seems at least equally likely as progress?

What went wrong? Perhaps no single factor can be blamed for all the things that went wrong.

Insurgent movements of all sorts, in countries around the world, have for centuries soured in the aftermath of their own success. “The revolution betrayed” is a theme that goes back at least as far as 18th century France.

The civil rights movement in 20th century America attracted many people who put everything on the line for the sake of fighting against racial oppression. But the eventual success of that movement attracted opportunists, and even turned some idealists into opportunists.

Over the generations, black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans. After the success of the civil rights insurgency, the latter have come into their own, gaining money, power and fame by promoting racial attitudes and actions that are counterproductive to the interests of those they lead.

None of this is unique to blacks or to the United States. In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people — and to hate those other people.

This was the history of anti-Semitic movements in Eastern Europe between the two World Wars, anti-Ibo movements in Nigeria in the 1960s, and anti-Tamil movements that turned Sri Lanka from a peaceful nation into a scene of lethal mob violence and then decades-long civil war, both marked by unspeakable atrocities.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having racial or ethnic leaders. While most Americans can easily name a number of black leaders, current or past, how many can name Asian American ethnic leaders or Jewish ethnic leaders?

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

[_ajax18]

How many liberals would even admit that it's possible for a nonwhite person to be racist? I've never heard them talk about anything but white people discriminating against nonwhite people. I think different races can get into their own race battles, but unless there is a way to make white people ultimately responsible, the issue is ignored and not talked about.

[_Kittens_and_Jesus]

How many liberals would even admit that it's possible for a nonwhite person to be racist?

I would.

I live with my Mexican in-laws in a mostly Mexican neighborhood. I have a conversational grasp of Spanish and get along with the older folks just fine. Its the English speaking teens and younger children that have a problem with me. They really hate white people.

[_ajax18]

I would.

That sounds more fair minded than I expected. The answer I'm used to getting is that it's impossible for a nonwhite person to be racist against a white person because power is held by other white people. Just hating white people didn't qualify as racism in their minds.

Do you think black people can be racist against other black people? Like the Hutus vs. the Tutsis, or something as simple as a black man parked at a stoplight who locks his car doors when a black man passes by but not when a white man passes by? I personally wouldn't fault a black man for locking his doors. He's playing the odds so better safe than sorry, but would you call that racist on the part of the motorist?

[_Quasimodo]

How many liberals would even admit that it's possible for a nonwhite person to be racist? I've never heard them talk about anything but white people discriminating against nonwhite people. I think different races can get into their own race battles, but unless there is a way to make white people ultimately responsible, the issue is ignored and not talked about.

Racism exists in all ethnic groups. It's a common occurrence for people to distrust and even hate "the other". Every time you have one group that distinguishes itself from another, you have some racism or class distrust.

My dad was a military policeman in the British army in india during the second world war. He said that when he first arrived there the bar fights consisted of one British unit punching noses with another British unit. When the Americans arrived it was always the British punching noses with the Yanks.

Maybe it's an instinct coming from the reptilian parts of our brains. Territorialism to protect resources. Time to move beyond that.

Black and brown people have suffered from discrimination by the "white" people of this country for many generations. It still continues despite laws that have tried to rectify that. Those laws have only been in effect for fifty years or so. Just a moment in time on the grand scale.

I have no doubt that someday no one will describe an American as someone black or hispanic or oriental or white.

[_Bret Ripley]

The answer I'm used to getting is that it's impossible for a nonwhite person to be racist against a white person because power is held by other white people.

I am surprised you would ever get that answer, let alone get it often enough to be "used to" getting it. As Quasi says, racism exists in all ethnic groups. It is pure silliness to suggest that racism against Caucasians is impossible.

[_schreech]

How many liberals would even admit that it's possible for a nonwhite person to be racist? I've never heard them talk about anything but white people discriminating against nonwhite people. I think different races can get into their own race battles, but unless there is a way to make white people ultimately responsible, the issue is ignored and not talked about.

You don't really have any non-white, non-conservative friends do you...You really need to get out, turn off the am radio and stop letting the conservative talking heads explain the world to you...

[_ajax18]

As long as I've been alive, the only racism I've ever heard about from the mainstream media is white people discriminating against black people, or some other race. Do black people ever discriminate against white people? If they do, why is it never talked about or reported in the news?

[_Droopy]

Black and brown people have suffered from discrimination by the "white" people of this country for many generations. It still continues despite laws that have tried to rectify that. .

CFR

[_Quasimodo]

As long as I've been alive, the only racism I've ever heard about from the mainstream media is white people discriminating against black people, or some other race. Do black people ever discriminate against white people? If they do, why is it never talked about or reported in the news?

As long as you have been alive and much longer than that, white people have been running this country. For the first few hundred years, black people were slaves in this country. In those same few hundred years, brown people were targeted for extermination.

When have black or brown people had a chance to discriminate against whites?