What she said
This resonates with me: Character, not color, counts the most.
I am lucky. Had I grown up in Mississippi instead of Ohio, my father would have been a Klucker. He was a Klucker in all but name. But then in Ohio we knew somebody who knew somebody who knew a black person. Out of a class of 200 in my high school, I doubt we had more than 5 black kids. I moved to my last home in Ohio in 1972 and got to know a black kid named Bernard in 6th grade. I liked him, but still felt uneasy toward him because of his skin color. I'm glad I got over it.
I am lucky that the Klucker mentality of both of my parents never took hold in me, because it would have been beaten out of me during my time in the Navy. Today, living in Memphis, Tennessee, about 90% of the people I interact with are black. If I had any racist underpinnings, I would be SOL in my job.
I have done my best to take Dr King's words to heart in my dealings with other people, and they have served me well. Which is why I like this article. It talks about how blacks are still fighting the battles of the 60's when they were won way back then.
Liberals have done much to destroy the black population, all through the bigotry of low expectations. All of that has led to the massive degradation of the condition of this minorities condition.
Yes, past racial injustices helped create these conditions and a litany of other injustices - racial profiling, predatory mortgage lending and assaults on affirmative action - endures. But rather than focus on what others have done to undermine black culture, we would be better served to remember the charge Martin Luther King Jr. issued: to live with dignity and discipline, to fight physical force with soul force. We can begin by refusing to allow those guilty of bad behavior - the brother hustling crack, the neglectful parent who offers a child Timberlands instead of time, the prodigal couple who chooses bankruptcy over modest living and the famous athlete accused of rape - to make these issues about the color of their skin rather than the content of their character.Amen.
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