“Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.” – Pat Buchanan, as if white people don’t use welfare.
Pat Buchanan is a disgusting example of a sub human being. This man has the audacity to say that people in the black community should be on their knees thanking the white community for bringing our ancestors to America, subjecting them to slavery, denial of humanity, Jim Crow laws, segregation, denial of civil rights, and denial of opportunity. While the dominant community worked to keep black people within the strict confines of subjugation, the white community reaped the benefits of low cost black labor and the benefits of black people being artificially prevented from competing fairly in a capitalistic environment. The black American today should be thankful that although we live in the richest country in the world and earn wages that exceed many blacks elsewhere, we pay much more than many blacks around the world in order to exist without healthcare, equal wages, equal opportunities for education and employment, and the other social ills that run the gamut.
Black people need to be thankful that white people hanged our ancestors from the local tree. We should be thankful that our ancestors were used for government sponsored experiments on the effects of syphilis if left untreated. We should be down on our knees thanking god that white people sprayed our elders and ancestors with water hoses for having the audacity to demand to be recognized as an equal part of this society that works so hard to protect racial disparity. We should be thankful that prisons hold a disproportionately excessive number of our brothers and sisters while on the flip side the American corporation employs a disproportionately inadequate number of black people.
We should be thankful for all of this disparity that has become the norm of American society. According to Mr. Buchanan, this is a grievance that the white American community has against the ungrateful black people. White people paid good money to other white people to buy our ancestors. Why aren’t we more thankful?
Then again, why aren’t more people of Jewish ancestry more thankful to Nazi Germany for all the things the Nazis did for them? The German Nazi party spent a lot of energy building all of those concentration camps to house those Jewish people. Why aren’t more Jews more thankful for the sacrifice that Germany made for their ancestors and elders? How come there are no Jews thanking the Germans for all of those train rides that allowed them to see the countryside from the inside of a railcar? The Germans provided Jews with food, at least every now and then. The Germans actually set in motion a series of events that led to the establishment of Israel. It would not have happened without Adolph Hitler’s help. If we follow Mr. Buchanan’s racist logic, every person of Jewish descent should be on their knees thanking the Nazis for everything that happened to them.
But no one would seriously suggest that the Jewish people should be on their knees thanking Nazis for their sordid past. The German Nazi party abused and misused its Jewish population. Jews exist despite what the Nazis did to them. The same is true about the relationship between America’s black population and the dominant society. If racist white people had their way, the black community would continue to have no rights and to exist in nothing more than a subservient role to the white community. It is this blatant tolerance for racism against black people in this country that allows the white mindset of people like Mr. Buchanan to flourish and to publicly express some of the most asinine concepts with regards to the relationship between blacks and whites. Black people need to get down on our collective knees and thank white supremacist, kidnappers, enslavers, rapists, murderers, and many other white criminals simply because we continue to exist in an environment of racial disparity. How racist and self centered can you get?
However, in one respect, Mr. Buchanan is very correct. His assessment that America’s dominant community is directly responsible for the condition of the black community is very true. He is mistaken in his opinion that we should be thanking the white community for what they have done. A victim of rape wouldn’t roll over, get on his or her knees, and thank the rapist for a good fuck. A crime was committed. The dominant community needs to face the facts that it has abused the black community just like the Nazi Germany had to come to terms with the fact that it had abused its Jewish community. We would never tolerate anyone publicly saying that the Jews should drop to their knees and thank god for the Nazis and for all the abuses of the Jewish community simply because the Jews are thriving. What on Earth would drive a person to think that the black community would drop to its knees and thank America’s dominant community for all the abuses our ancestors, our elders, and we have suffered? The mere suggestion is intended as a slap in the black community’s face.
This is how people with the white mindset respond to a call for some kind of dialog to start the healing process to end America’s racial dysfunction. The white mindset doesn’t want to end it because these people are benefiting from the divide. The white mindset wants to keep this dysfunction going just like the plantation owner would do anything to keep slavery going. The white mindset wants to be thanked for what they have done that has caused the black community such despair. This is the face of compassionate conservatism. Mr. Buchanan has zero compassion for the black community or racial healing. It is because he is profoundly deep in his psychosis of white supremacy he maintains his delusion that black people need to be grateful for the crumbs America throws its way. No one is this much of a callous bastard by accident. Mr. Buchanan is making a conscious decision to never come to terms with America’s racism, the racist past, or the racial dysfunction that continues to support white privilege and black subjugation.
And unfortunately, Pat Buchanan is in no way operating individually or in a small club. Mr. Buchanan is part of a very large fraternity. He is the type of white man that would be more than happy to beat an enslaved African to within an inch of his life and then demand that the African lick his boot to show allegiance. He’s the type of white man that would turn a dog without a muzzle on black people conducting a peaceful protest. He is the type of white man that would turn to a group of black children and threaten to make their lives disappear if they don’t quit making trouble for white children who hang racially provocative nooses. He is the type of white man who would drag a black man behind his pickup truck with a chain around the neck and then get pissed when the black man doesn’t offer to pay for his gas. He is the type of white man that would turn loose a fire hose on blacks in a peaceful march and complain that the blacks didn’t thank him for not using bullets. He is the type of man who would deny black children an education. In fact, he’s more likely to suggest that we could reduce crime by aborting all black babies. He is the epitome of white privilege. He is a disgusting example of a sub human being.
asabagna said:
Strong post! I like alot!
Lee Coles said:
When Pat Buchanan was a teenager attending D.C.’s Gonzaga High School (around the time Bill Bennett was there), he and his friends’ idea of kicks was to gang up on a Black person and beat them up.
Anonymiss said:
Fine piece of work 🙂 I wanted to blog about Buchanan’s statements but it would’ve been expletive-filled, LOL!
I’d like to cross-post this piece on my blog & I do plan to give you credit.
brotherpeacemaker said:
Thanks for the feedback Anonymiss,
By all means, please feel free to cross post.
Peace
nneoma said:
oh yes, massa buchanan, i thanks ya fa ma freedoms….what a load of….God, is there even a word to describe the shit of the shit. what is even more incredible is that there may be even more people out there, who we deem normal, who think this way.
But on a more sane note, I find it incredible how people (ehemm Fox News) is still on this Wright issue. Every time I happen to pass by that channel, there is some snide reference to Wright. It’s like Wright has given white people the right to finally be indignant about race – as if they have been slighted for the past 400 years. Now their (some white people) rallying cry is “Reverse Discrimination,” etc. I think that they forgot that racism has the most potency when you are a member of marginalized group. If I, with my broke self went up to Rupert Murdock and said, “hey, you rich people people suck,” it would not be as potent…I hope in my anger, I am making some kind of sense…
By the way, did Buchanan make this statement in isolation or amongst a news panel…did anyone bother to call him to order?
Pingback: Jim Crow Laws » Blog Archive » The Epitome Of Racism Is Pat Buchanan
Micah Pyre said:
Lee Coles has it nailed. Hell, I know people who graduated from Gonzaga Prep in the mid-80s who were playing the same KKK game. For that matter, I knew dumbass redneck fukkers who went to my high school — Springbrook, about 17 miles north in Montgomery County MD — who spent their weekend nights looking for black kids to gang up on and beat to pulps, or went looking for black families so they could pour gasoline on the lawn in the shape of a cross, and burn it. Racism thrives in America, even in “the Free State” of Maryland.
Buchanan is another dumb terrified white person who chooses to demonize black folks instead of trying to connect with them and understand them. He’s too damned afraid, he’s all full with that Mandingo crap and he thinks every black man is trying to rape his wife, his daughter, his niece, et cetera. Or he’s all full with the idea that every black man wants to kill him.
He may be right about black men wanting to kill him, but it’s not because he’s white. It’s because he’s Pat Buchanan, racist extraordinaire.
Zack said:
Actually, as an Afrocentric black male, I agree with some of what Buchanan said. Now, wait, before you take away my black card…
We are blessed to be American. There was nothing blessed about us enduring 400 years (and counting) of oppression. Not at all. But our poorest family is much better off than the average family in one of them hard to pronounce African towns (Igottabooboo, Kenya).
And white people do need to talk back to us- by saying they are sorry first. They should be sorry for not feeling said about our kids losing their lives in such large numbers. They should be sorry about the high jail rates of our men and women. They should feel a little sorry about ignoring the plight of black America.
So, leave Pat Buchanan alone. He’s already stuck his foot in his mouth. Let’s stick ours somewhere else..
Hagar's Daughter said:
The truly sad part of this is that he actually believes this garbarge.
theblacksentinel said:
Zack,
I highly doubt that you are very afrocentric taking your typical racist type of name for an African city/state “I gotta boo boo”. Come on that is some serious ignorant crap right there.
Not to mention who says that blacks aren’t happy to be Americans? When does talking about racism make you unhappy to be an American. America is our home, America is the only country we know yet it is a place that has nothing but disdain for us. How should we feel about this?
You say that the poorest family in the U.S. is much better off than the average family in one of them hard to pronounce African towns. How the hell do you know that? Just because they are not saddled with our debt, penchant for expensive technology, fatty foods and unhealthy lifestyle does not mean that they don’t have a good life.
They probably don’t have to worry about high gas prices, high blood pressure, diabetes or other ailments induced by our lifestyle. You assume that the majority of people in Africa are poor and starving since that is the only propaganda that you see and choose not to fully research. The average family there is just as likely to have the amenities of families here.
Yes, Pat Buchanan stuck his foot in his mouth but unfortunately you have done pretty much the same. If he wants to be left alone then he would keep his stupid, self righteous, white privileged, ignorant, racist speech to himself. That is a good way to start.
You are the weakest black link, good bye!
DNLee said:
Having spent some time in the developing world (Latin/South America) and having many colleagues who have been to other parts of the world, too (Africa)….the poor in the states are better off (quality of life) than those of developing nations.
What’s better off?
Plumbing. Yes. plumbing. a luxury that is taken for granted. It is not only a convenience, but a public health incentive. With plumbing comes decreased risk of getting cholera, dysentery, chigara– all of that nasty stuff
State funded public health services. Ooh, having shots and boosters are a good thing. Believe it or not, some kids still die from chicken pox and whooping cough. Malaria sucks. And most of the equatorial region – which happens to be poor developing nations of colored people – are seriously impacted by the disease.
America has a HORRIBLE reputation dealing with race and class issues (blacks, native americans, latin americans, heck even some pedigrees of Europeans have caught it). And it is all wrapped up with poverty and the lack of some groups of people to anchor themselves -financially and socially – in this interesting society.
chelsea said:
I think Pat is an example of powerful racist leaders in this country…they use patriotism as a backbone for their hate and segregation…it’s disgusting and i think more people are seeing through their silly attempts at illusion.
Nanya Rashaad El said:
Across the board Afro-American leadership has failed to incorporate the historical facts about the European conquest and settlement of the Americas and the prior migrations of first, African peoples and then the Asians. People of Nubun/African decent were indigenous to the Americas possibly before Europeans evolved as a distinct bio-genetic subset to the Human Race.
Africans it seems came to the lands they would come to refer to as Atlaan and Amexem, Land of the Frogs etc in successive waves of migrations that may in fact go back tens of thousand of years. In time because of geographic conditions that led to relative isolation these migrants to a new global territory would form cultures that would come to be distinctly different from their African predecessors.
And yet African American leaders of all political stripes fail to force these most powerful historical facts into the Culture Wars, mainstream media and political discourse. We allow European American “nativist” like Pat Buchanan and Samuel P. Huntington of Clash of Civilizations fame to get away with this continued defamation of the Native American African Americans who have generally been written out of American history.
The Yamassee and Cherokee pre Columbian African decent Native American polities spanned the American southeast from the mountains of Tennessee into the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. The Washitaw people led by the Empress Verdeace Goodson Bey in present times claimed territory from Mississippi, La. and across the vast expanse of what is now called Texas. Further accurate histories report that the indigenous Black Californians resisted European settlement into the late 1800s.
African decent Native Americans resisted slavery and subjugation in colonial southeastern America before the trans Atlantic slave trade would become historically significant.
The competition for colonial power between the Spanish, French and finally the English would bring about the collapse of Black Native American resistance with the Yamassee wars of 1715.
The Seminole Wars rear guard action was the final resistance to European enslavement and subjugation. Contrary to other historical reporting the core of the people who would be called Seminole were the African decent indigenous people called the Oconee who lived in an area of Georgia presently referred to as Middle Georgia the location present day Macon Georgia and surrounding counties. In time remaining elements of the Yamassee, Cherokee and many other African decent blood related tribes, clans and families would join the resistance and become Seminoles. When escaped African slaves as recently forced migrants to European colonial America sought the assistance of these Native American people they sought their own kind and became integrated into the African Native American culture.
The Seminole Wars are a period of recorded American history at least as important as the Civil War. Yet the resistance of these pre-Columbian African decent Native American nations is marginalized in American history.
We need to build these historical facts into doctrines of historical and political unification and eliminate European created discontinuities in our histories. Then and only then will we be able to tap into the intellectual and creative sources left as a historical record by the ancient ancestors.
The right to political autonomy and sovereignty has on a limited basis been extended to and historically recognized as a right to Native Americans of the Asian phenotype. Black Americans are not seen as indigenous in any mainstream discourse, political or otherwise.
The post civil rights era is upon us. Civil Rights and whatever may have been achieved in that 1960s era still do not speak to the historical facts. Those facts are African Americans in almost every modern day American demographic are the descendants of historically autonomous and sovereign peoples indigenous to the “Americas” before Columbus. We now demand modern day human and political rights reflective of these historical facts.
The most potent political formulations for the survival of the Black nation will not be civil rights but the reparations of our sovereign indigenous rights. The rising tide of indigenous consciousness amongst African Americans has shown that the rest of the world recognizes who we are. Why don’t we.