The (Outdated) Race Card

Dividing us by race has been going on too long in this supposed melting pot of a country.

A bloody Civil War ended slavery in the United States, but it did not stop the discrimination based on race.

As late as the early 1940’s Japanese Americans were interred and isolated into camps and their rights as citizens removed.

The 1950’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s were years when, as a nation, we made some giant strides to eliminate bias and discrimination in our schools and neighborhoods.

It has not been a smooth, easy road, but the country was getting better and better at respect and dignity for all. Much of that impetus was the ‘character over skin color’ influence of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960’s.

Newer generations of young people helped by not carrying their elders’ racial and ethnic biases forward.

As the country was becoming more non-discriminatory and accepting, a whole wave of something proponents called “woke” reared its ugly head. Identity politics was born, and race was put back on the difference screen.

Woke was buttressed by several rewrites of American history. One of the first accepted by too many was a project of the New York Times and its magazines called the 1619 Project.

The journalist writer behind the project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, decided 1619 was the first time Africans were sold into slavery in the colonies. She ignored that it actually happened in 1525 – but never mind. At the heart of the project is the explicit claim that the true history of America did not start in 1776, but in 1619. She argues that slavery is the lens through which all of America’s successes and failures, everything that defines us, good and bad, must be understood as bad. So according to the project, race was back on the front burner of victimhood.

I note here the 1619 project presents no solution. Somehow by understanding how corrupt capitalism is, and how the US government still supports segregation and discrimination because it’s founded on falsehoods, that we’ll all be better off.

The ‘woke-sters’ were not done.

Now that 1619 makes us sensitive to our cultural and legal failings and inadequacies, we can now appreciate how so many victims have been created by the oppressors – led by white, straight men. Minorities, women, gays, transgenders, etc. have all been made victims to the system of white (male) supremacy. She then led a team of writers who wrote and influenced the development of a curriculum for our schools.

Then the LGBTQ + acronym was born. It stands for more victims.

All this ‘noise’ culminated in something that many bought into – something called DEI.

DEI – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – gave birth to a new industry. That industry has businesses and government entities hiring companies/people to train employees to supposedly be fair and respectful to other employees. That training starts with each employee, but especially white employees, admitting to racism.

In executing DEI, the organization looks at skin color, ethnic background, women and LGBTQ + in their internal operations and promotions, and their hiring practices. Under this cloak of ‘high virtue’ and ‘compassion,’ people are promoted and/or hired based on their victimhood. So, your hard work at getting good grades in school, your exemplifying work for an employer are trumped by those victims who “just never had a chance.”

It goes further. In order for those who used to fail on the merit scale to feel more comfortable, the idea is to lower the standards of excellence, so more people qualify. It’s sort of like not keeping score in kids’ sports games and everyone gets a “participation trophy.”  Winners and losers sound too much like oppressors and victims.

It has quickly evolved into a falsehood, unfortunately adopted by some major corporations and the Biden Administration that any disparity is, by definition, the result of discrimination. Ergo, that’s racism.

For example: black skinned people make up 13% of the population. A nuclear medicine lab where isotopes are created, examined, and tested, but where 13% of the medical and genetic engineers are not black is racially discriminating. It’s a racist airline when 13% of the pilots are not black.

This claim to racial disparity as proof of racial discrimination has apparently been percolating in academia for a long time. But after the George Floyd race riots of 2020, coupled with the creation of “Black Lives Matter,” it was adopted by some of our most elite institutions – including universities, museums and orchestras. The problem with all this ‘better than thou’ stuff is that it’s not only racism itself but perpetuates the emphasis on differences rather than unity.

Why can’t we focus on the joys of living in a country founded on and striving for equality for all citizens.

Thoroughbred racehorses come in all different markings, shades, and colors. The way we differentiate them is by how well they run, the ‘W’s and the money won after their name – not whether they’re gray, brown, or black.

We’re all unique as individuals, it’s past time that being an American citizen means that we look at each other and treat each other as just that – individual Americans.

Let’s find solutions and fix whatever is now holding anyone back from excellence.

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Have a great and prosperous week.

Hug somebody.

SPIDER Bytes

This week’s trivia question is: What is the only bird that can fly backward? The answer to last week’s question re: the last of the Apache warrior chiefs: Geronimo. Born 1829, he lived until 1909. He led his band of Apache Indians against both the Mexican and U.S. governments that wanted the land they occupied between what is now New Mexico and Arizona. After Mexican troops killed his family, he dreamt that neither Mexican nor American bullets could kill him. Despite numerous fierce battle charges and encounters, he was never wounded and died on a reservation in Oklahoma.

Here’s one of those experts’ theories. Orcas have been ramming boats in the Spain/Portugal seas the last several years with apparently greater frequency than prior times. In a report released by a consortium of orca experts earlier this year they say that it’s teenage orcas that are bored and looking for something to do. While you may agree or be skeptical, I find it refreshing there’s at least one thing experts say isn’t caused by climate change.

Oh, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister has obviously drunk the Kool-Aid, attributing a recent landslide to climate change.

Have you noticed on national, network news now there’s items related to storm systems that threaten X number of millions of people over the next short period. It used to be news when a tornado touched down somewhere. Climate change, you know.

One of the key concerns with electric cars is the use of lithium-ion batteries, whose production involves mining for rare metals, leading to significant pollution.

The National Retail Federation found seven in ten retailers think organized shoplifting has been common in recent years. Apparently self-checkout lanes are also being closed at many retailers because they make it easier to steal.

The new $20 minimum wage in CA has fast food restaurants rushing to install digital kiosks and robotic food prep – with commensurate layoffs of staff and price increases. Once again, we see politicians who think they know better as they create unintended consequences that negatively affect those who they thought they were helping – i.e., 10,000 lost jobs so far with a now $18 Big Mac. It’s appropriately called power in the hands of the ignorant.

The NY trial of Donald Trump is finally over. Now all I want to know is what felonies he was found guilty of committing 34 times and what jail time is appropriate for all those crimes. Does this have a distinct smell to it?