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The ugly truth of black hypocrisy
Colin McNickle is the Trib's director of editorial pages. Ring him at 412-320-7836. E-mail him at: cmcnickle@tribweb.com.
Well, folks, I'm all played out. Vacation is over. The fishing poles are put away in the basement rafters and the dinghy is docked. New batteries are in and the meter's up and running. Let's get back to work. For I am outraged.
In what surely will go down in history as one the most racist speeches of this young century, the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said Republicans appeal "to the dark underside of American culture, to that minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality."
Oh, Julian Bond didn't use the word "Republicans" in his remarks before last week's 94th annual NAACP convention in Miami Beach. But he left little to doubt that's who he meant, referring to those who control the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court.
This is simply outrageous.
"They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division," he said. "(T)heir idea of reparations is to give war criminal Jefferson Davis a pardon. Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side."
How utterly reprehensible.
But how typical: This from the same fella who once compared Republicans to the Taliban, The Washington Times deftly reminds.
Mr. Bond, in opening remarks to the convention, also threw in some of the usual gratuitous slaps at the Bush administration. Tax cuts will threaten entitlements, he said. Was it Bond being too enamored by his own race-baiting rhetoric? Or does Bond actually not understand the process by which tax cuts help expand the economy and opportunity and reduce the need for those very entitlements?
Oh, and he also predicted that if blacks and Hispanics vote as they did in 2000, "the no-show National Guardsman in the White House and his draft-dodging vice president will lose by 3 million votes" in the 2004 election.
Gee, and NAACP leaders are perplexed by the president's refusal to attend these bigotry-filled affairs?
Another association leader got in on the act as well. Kweisi Mfume, the group's president and former Maryland U.S. representative (a demagogic Democrat, of course), told reporters that he reviewed the transcript of the last time that Mr. Bush did appear before an NAACP convention, in 2000 as candidate Bush.
"(Bush) said ... that 'the party of Lincoln was the party of civil rights.' That 'we had not always stood on the right side of history but the party of Lincoln had an opportunity to rectify that and to be different.'
"We're still waiting, in many respects, for some of the rectifying to take place," Mr. Mfume said.
Well, Kweisi, what party was it that filibustered some of the most critical civil-rights measures? Hey pal, it wasn't Republicans. If you're looking for some "rectification," dude, you better look to your liberal Socialist Democrat "friends," best buddies all who are working so hard to keep your constituents by keeping them servile -- by making sure government continues to be their ma and pa.
Mfume also attacked three Democrat presidential hopefuls -- Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich -- for not attending the NAACP's presidential candidate forum. But, why would anybody want to be associated with, let alone seek the endorsement of, this bunch of intolerants?
Apparently Messrs. Lieberman, Gephardt and Kucinich. These idiots actually apologized on Thursday.
As blatantly racist as all of this NAACP barking was, what's worse is that I've seen no expressions of outrage in the liberal media or among liberal commentators.
Molly Ivins is sitting on her mouth.
Stanley Crouch, not a peep.
Clarence Page, nothing.
Jesse Jackson? Get real.
There's no Katie Couric feigning shock, no Peter Jennings being appalled and no Judy Woodruff being "simply stunned."
A brace-snapping editorial, perhaps, from The New York Times, denouncing such black Archie Bunkerism and calling for the immediate resignations of Bond and Mfume? In your dreams!
Can you imagine the outcry if the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of White People (if he and it existed) said Democrats appeal "to the dark underside of American culture, minority Americans who reject work and demand handouts and expect rewards for their illegitimate children"?
They'd be excoriated.
But, since when is liberal, black-on-white racism acceptable? Since when?!
Oh, and then there's this hoot: For writing about black racism, "whitey" that I am I'll be denounced as a "racist" by the black community.
It's the same misguided mind-set that argues for affirmative action (discrimination to end discrimination), for reparations (socialistic wealth redistribution in the guise of "paying a debt" that defies any sensible calculation), for "living wages" (artificial wage floors not based on productivity or worker value but "social justice" that is nothing more than socialism), and for "our fair share" (even if it's not earned; the "Gimme Syndrome" I spoke to two weeks ago).
Black leaders are among the first to the microphone to say "We need to have an honest discussion about race in this country." Yes we do. And I've just engaged in some. But before the discussions can be totally honest, these same black leaders need to face the ugly truth of their hypocrisy:
They oftentimes practice an even worse brand of the ugliest racism than white leaders do. And instead of being held to account for it, they invariably get a pass.
To conscript Julian Bond's words to use against him, black leaders preach "democracy" and "equality" but lobby for socialism and the very discrimination they say they detest. That's the real "dark underside" of this debate.
And a programming note: I invite you to tune in to WPTT Radio (1360 on the AM dial) tomorrow, Monday, from 3-6 p.m. when I'll be guest-hosting for Doug Hoerth. Sorry, no music trivia questions. Among my guests, 1990s nemesis and former Allegheny County Commissioner Bob Cranmer, firearms scholar John Lott, former Pennsylvania Gov. and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, and Paul Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation. I'll see you on the radio.
