The past couple of weeks the country has been in the midst of a media-prolonged, emotional orgasm over the “racist” statements of Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and the racial comments made in a private conversation that NBA franchise owner Donald Sterling had with his scheming mistress.
Black folk particularly have been hyperventilating over the incidents as “see, I told you so” moments that prove white racism is still an ever-present and relative evil that continually seeks to impede black progress.
Say what you will about Cliven Bundy’s “Lemme tell you one more thing I know about the Negro” comments, but his underlying point was spot-on. Yes, his comments were clumsy, his terminology- rudimentary; slavery was deplorable. But the essence of what he said can’t be overlooked precisely because blacks such as Thomas Sowell, Allen West and Walter E. Williams have offered similar statements on numerous occasions. Government intervention has successfully accomplished what slavery and Jim Crow-era discrimination failed to do- completely destroy the black family while undermining the nobility of work. This reality is extremely difficult to argue against considering the fifty years of accumulated and related data in combination with the product of what every inner city in America has become since the celebrated ‘war on poverty’ programs were instituted.
Sterling’s comments on their face, appear far worse than Bundy’s. I include that caveat because as of right now, we can’t eliminate the possibility that these comments were purposely edited in such a way as to intentionally damage Sterling’s character and reputation by an angry, gold-digging girlfriend who’s being sued by Sterling’s wife, Rochelle Sterling.
That said, we can speculate as to what Sterling was trying to convey to his mixed-race lover, but in my opinion, that isn’t the primary issue. The issue isn’t whether Donald Sterling is a racist; based on his history, he may very well be or he may simply be a bigot (even though the NAACP was to honor him again in May, which is ironic considering they will honor a preeminent racist, Al Sharpton, at this event).
But, so what? The issue is- what was supposed to be a private conversation between two people was deliberately recorded and released in an attempt to humiliate him publicly. Say what you will, but everyone says things in private conversations, to people whom we trust, that we would never- ever- dare mention in public, for obvious reasons. If private conversations were to be regularly aired, most people would lose respect, relationships, jobs, confidence, money, etc., which is precisely why we have these conversations behind closed doors rather than in the decency of public spaces.
More importantly, the twisted public revelry in “racism” once again demonstrates the confused priorities that blacks- and their sympathizers- still have regarding those things that should be important and relevant. It also shows why blacks continue to lose moral, cultural and political credibility. Bundy’s views on ‘the Negro’ or Sterling’s comments about blacks have absolutely no relevance or power over the lives of black Americans and are truly of very little importance.
While the racial sympathizers and instigators in the racial grievance and agitation industry were busy emotionally manipulating blacks, again, forty-three people where shot and five were killed just this weekend alone in Chicago. In addition to this nightmare, black unemployment is at 12.4%, black teen unemployment is over 36%; black women continue to have a disproportionate amount of abortions as recent stats in New York, Mississippi and Georgia demonstrate; black illegitimacy is 73%; black children are still subjected to substandard education in inner cities across the country, preventing them from building the academic foundation that will allow them to effectively compete against their white and Asian counterparts. Yet more time, voice, examination, importance and relevance were given to what two old white men say about blacks rather than focusing on the self-inflicted problems and pathologies that many blacks are in close proximity to address and rectify.
Damn shame. Again, priorities, people.
Cliven Bundy can use ‘colored’ and ‘Negro’ in reference to black people until the second coming while Donald Sterling laments the presence of black people on “the Instagram” of his mixed-race concubine and at the presence of his games, but these aren’t the problems that black folk should transfix themselves. As long as blacks continue to attribute more moral importance to trivial conversations about “racism” rather than the crucial issues that actually affect the daily lives of so many blacks across the country, much worse will be said about black people and their (lack of) credibility behind closed doors than ‘Negroes’ will ever want to hear.
And as usual, if those conversations are ever aired publicly, it will of course be “racist.”