Am I a Racist?

When I was 18 and just out of high school, ready to begin my journey through life, I had high hopes and big dreams. Unfortunately, it was the same year the infamous “Equal Rights” amendment was passed and I was in for some big surprises. I had not personally witnessed racial bias, having grown up in Sacramento, California, but I had heard of the segregation that was being practiced in the southern states. For this reason, I celebrated the milestone along with everybody else, not fully understanding, at the time, what it meant to me personally.

It was only a few short years later that I began to understand that my generation was the one that would begin to pay the debt for transgressions committed by the southern states. This is not to admit that there ever was a debt that needed to be repaid. It’s amazing how soon we have forgotten the sacrifices made by white folks in the cause for emancipation. Any casual perusal of the facts will show that it was whites who spearheaded the movement for abolishment. How many remember that John Brown and his sons gave their lives in this effort?

As I continued my journey through life, it became apparent that not only blacks, but any perceived minority, women, Hispanics, American Indians, and even some recently arrived European races would be given precedent over me, no matter what their abilities. Scholarships for Educational purposes were more difficult to find, and it became more difficult to qualify for admission to most colleges and universities. In my business as a General Contractor, I had to win contracts by a 10% margin (usually my entire profit margin!) over my minority competitors if I even hoped to be awarded a contract. It made it impossible to stay in business and forced me into the private job market because government jobs were out of the question for anyone without connections and who was not one of the chosen minorities.

Since the amendment is still in place, and affirmative action has been added to it, I now see that my children have had to shoulder this burden also. I think we have paid enough! I want minority races off my back! You cannot legislate equality and respect, they have to be earned and as long as minorities are prevented from earning it, they will never truly gain it. Not from me anyway. If this makes me a racist, then I am proud to speak up and wear the badge.

Does this look familiar?

Taken directly from the Declaration of Independence, this is a list of charges against King George which aim to demonstrate that he has violated the colonists' rights and is therefore unfit to be their ruler:

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

· He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

· He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

· He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.


· He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.


· He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.

Does this all look familiar?

Aversion to Change

One thing I have learned from reading history is that any particular generation will, in the end, long for the “old days,” the times of their parents when life was supposedly simpler and the pace, a bit slower. At the same time, that same generation will have an aversion to the lifestyle of the following generation.

I learned that at the turn of the 20th century, around 1900, when Ragtime music became the rage, the previous generation reviled it thinking it was a bad influence on the youngsters. The next generation discovered Jazz and it too, was characterized as having a bad influence on the teenagers. After Jazz, we entered the Big Band era which was not viewed with quite the same disdain by the prior generation as Ragtime and Jazz had been. Maybe that was because Big Band music actually resulted in a slowing of the rhythm and the pace of dance. Big Band music carried this country through the years of WWII and slowly morphed into the early Rock & Roll of the Bobby Soxers in the 1950’s. Again, the previous generation abhorred Rock & Roll and even resorted to “record burnings” in some places.

I am no different. I have an aversion to the “in your face” rap music of today and I long for the lifestyle of my parents, a time when life was simpler and a bit slower. All this “change” is a bit overwhelming.

I am really concerned about the political direction of our country but I don’t know if I am just being an alarmist or if there is really reason to be concerned. Is the younger generation alarmed by all this change? Are they even aware of what’s going on with their government? I see a few of them speaking out, but for the vast majority, I wonder.