What does it do to my black grandchildren when they watch television and see mobs of threatening white people supporting a South Carolina congressman who shouted “You lie” at the biracial president of the United States in a Joint Session of Congress viewed all over the world? How does it affect them to see guns brought to speeches given by the president? How puzzling it must be for them to hear some white people say they want their country back – from whom? I know what to tell them. Hold steady and keep the faith is what I tell my grandchildren and I bring perspective to the current white hysteria. Things were much worse 50 years ago for black people in America. Fifty years ago a far larger percentage of white Americans expressed anti-black sentiments in far more direct and violent ways.
Fifty years ago there were only two black congressmen, no black senators, no black governors, and few blacks in local governments around the country. The highest black office-holder in a local government in the country was Hurland Jack, the Borough President of Manhattan, in New York City. It is, I tell them, a measure of African-American social progress that there is a black president to whom racist sentiments can be directed. It is also a measure of white Southern incivility that such an outburst can happen as it did.
I live in South Carolina where many whites are crazy with the reality that a black man is president of the United States. This is, for them, a situation that must be confronted by all means necessary. This translates into insulting behavior by South Carolina’s politicians. One of the state's two Republican senators want to “break” the president by making his health care plan his Waterloo. Rusty DePass, a South Carolina political small potato, said that an escaped zoo gorilla was one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors. The state’s embattled governor had to be made to take the president’s stimulus money. Then along came Joe Wilson’s vulgarity. White politicians in South Carolina can behave this way with impunity because its majority population is largely racist. Fortunately only two of my grandchildren live here and will grow up here in this place of lagging social indicators.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Frances E. Fields
Horace, as usual, this was very well written and on point. I am forwarding this to many of my friends (those who have computers). Frances
2 - Doug Hunter
I feel sorry that you have to view the entire world through a lens in black and white. White racism in the past has created a generation of black/democratic racists who view everything in terms of skin color and are quite fond of making generalizations, bashing, and generally disliking/hating whites. That is the very definition of racism. You have become what you claim to hate.
The president was lying. Our whole immigration policy is a sorry lie. Either enforce the rules or remove them. I think open borders is the only workable solution.
It would be nice to let people in in an orderly fashion, to have background checks, and to give priority to those that have skills and education. But, if you're not going to enforce the laws you can't make people do those things. I feel sorry now for the honest people who go through legal channels, wait years, and pay thousands of $$$ to become US citizens when others just jump to the line and waltz in.
I say just open the statue of liberty for business again and welcome our new consumers. Maybe they'll stimulate the economy and have those kids we need to pay for boomers Social Security.
3 - Glenn Contrarian
FYI, Doug, the president was not lying. The bill specifically states that no federal funds may be used to pay for care or treatment of undocumented aliens.
And when it comes to immigration, you will find that as long as America is seen as rich and prosperous, then America will have an 'immigration problem'...just like all - all! - the modern industrialized democracies of Western Europe, at least two of which have significantly worse immigration problems than we do.
The only way to 'solve' our immigration problem would be to ruin our economy...and I must admit Reagonomics and the Bush 43 administration made significant strides in that direction.
4 - roger nowosielski
Doug,
Why are you making an illegal immigration an issue? I don't believe that's a major thrust of Horace's argument, if at all.
In addition, you accuse him of seeing the world through the white and black lens. Have you walked any distance in his shoes? What would you know about having grown up in the South, black man that he is, when racist was rampant and color discrimination was the order of the day. And after all the progress that the African-Americans have made, to see it being revived again in the likes of Joe Wilson, Sanford, and other Southern politicians.
Horace is a uniter, not a divider. He envisages a better America, when differences of color and race and ethnic origin won't matter. This yearning and unshakable hope is evident in every single piece he had contributed to the BC. And we should only be grateful that people like that decide to share their experiences with us, their innermost hopes and dreams. But all this, apparently, is lost on you, so ideological and self-centered you seem to be that you can't fathom another perspective, another point of view, the kind of America you have never known or experienced.
It's not Horace Mungin but people like Joe Wilson and the crowd that are planting the seeds of unrest and open hostility and are drawing us to a brink of a civil war. And over what? Certainly not healthcare, or the bailouts, not even the stimulus plan. All these are but excuses to them to rouse up the rubble, the unthinking masses, whether by way of tea parties or shameful townhall meeting - in the name of patriotism and small government, and ideas that, by their very practice, have become all defunct. And why? Only for the sake of their political ambitions. They are the traitors to this country and its people, not Horace Mungin. It is they who put their own personal interests before the public good and healing this nation wounds. It is they who represent the greatest obstacle to America's recovery, not just economically but in terms of solidarity and common purpose, as one people.
Again, I find it ironic that you thought nothing of finding fault with Mr. Mungin's perspective, and he'd earned it, while all those who really deserve a lashing somehow escape your critical eye. But I suppose it's the sign of the times when not only the mob but even some of the articulate and intelligent Americans, such as yourself, are swept by this current myopia and sense of irrationality.
We're really in a bad shape if it had come to that.
5 - Christy Corp-Minamiji
Horace, this was beautifully written. I wish that we lived in a world where it didn't need to be.
6 - roger nowosielski
That's right, Christy. So do I.
7 - roger nowosielski
I like your prose, Christy. It's fresh, crisp and invigorating.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
Horace -
Good article, and completely true.
Just to let you know, not all whites from the South are racist. There are even some who were racist but are not so any longer (such as myself)...but those Southern whites who aren't surely seem to be in the minority.
Just to give you some hope, I thought I'd give you links to two articles I wrote, one concerning my recent visit to my home in the MS Delta, and the other warning Republicans and conservatives of the dangers inherent in their reliance on the 'Southern strategy'.
Here's one more article I think you'll like describing the conservatives' error in ignoring demographic trends.
Having been raised in a racist community, I can see right through most of the conservatives' pretensions that their beef with Obama has nothing to do with racism. Many of them aren't racist...but in my opinion it is flatly impossible that racial prejudice doesn't play a large role in the conservative community's hatred of President Obama.
They'll deny it, of course - see, they even learned to keep from saying the 'n-word' in public - but they can't hide it from me. I grew up as one of them...and I know them too well.
9 - Doug Hunter
"The bill specifically states that no federal funds may be used to pay for care or treatment of undocumented aliens."
Lots of things about illegals are 'illegal' but never get enforced. Politicians will tell some constituents that illegal immigrants will not be served to make them happy, then they'll turn around and make sure those laws don't get enforced and give a wink and a nod to other groups to make them happy. That's the root of the lying that is going on.
What you end up with is random and politicized enforcement and a weird second class status for illegals that WILL come back to bite us all in the ass in the future. Did we learn nothing from slavery? We should not purposely import second class citizens of a different race (or any race) into this country to use as cheap labor. And when they come for their reparations these laws will be like a millstone around your neck and the fact that you didn't really enforce them will not matter a bit.
10 - roger nowosielski
Doug Hunter,
The Americans themselves, the Wall Street sharks and unscrupulous CEOs of the multinational, have already bitten us in the ass, a kind of bite from which we may never recover. And it wasn't because of the vigilance of our politicians. They were part of the scheme.
The same with illegal immigration. Everybody turned their blind eye for as long as it served our economic interests. This isn't a problem we inherited today; it's been long in coming.
So why don't you put the blame where the blame is - in pure and unadultarated greed and ideas that have become bankrupt? All we are experiencing right now is the consequences of past immoral behavior and action - the wages for sins past.
11 - Glenn Contrarian
Oh, I see! It's not the LAW that you have a beef with, it's your ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE that the law will be ignored and not enforced!
And it's all just a VAST conspiracy because Obama was telling all the nation's doctors (wink wink!) that they can go ahead and treat the illegal aliens (wink wink!) and we'll pay for all of it (wink wink!) and the Republicans will never know (wink wink!)!
And best of all, President Obama, all the non-blue-dog Democrats, all those who voted for Obama, and all the doctors know all of this on the QT!
WOW, Doug! You figured all this out by yourself! Gotta hand it to you!
Now...all the above sarcasm aside, if you cannot prove with black-and-white evidence that Obama lied, then you are assuming guilt before innocence.
As I said in Dave Nalle's ACORN thread, I will stand against any and all accusations against anyone (even Dick Cheney) when those accusations are not backed up with cold, hard, provable fact.
12 - Clavos
There is one good and sure cure to illegal immigration -- don't make it illegal.
Anyone without a criminal record should be accepted here -- anyone.
13 - Ted
Dude, criticizing a black person is not the same as anti-black sentiment.
14 - roger nowosielski
It's fine by me. We're going to hell anyway.
15 - roger nowosielski
Horcase Mungin ain't just any "regular" black person. Have you looked at his writings? He encapsulates more experiences about America than you and me put together tenfold.
Are you guys blind?
16 - Julie
Horace - the times, they are a changin'. My father once told me a long time ago that he and my mother -- both of whom grew up above the Mason/Dixon line -- were racist and somehow they managed to raise three color blind children. Now, I look at my three beautiful grandsons and I hope that any racism I still have in my heart won't pass down to them.
It is very sad that a man who is only half black can cause such a stir. I'm not scared of a different race being in power. Blacks or Latinos or Asians certainly couldn't screw it up any worse than us whites have done.
God Bless
17 - Doug Hunter
"As I said in Dave Nalle's ACORN thread, I will stand against any and all accusations against anyone (even Dick Cheney) when those accusations are not backed up with cold, hard, provable fact."
Funny thing, I've never heard you express that sentiment on an article attacking Republicans. Everyone requires a higher level of proof to indict their people than they do to convict their enemies. Nothing new there.
As to how politicians say one thing and do another on immigration, the stretch is not to see how I came to that conclusion, it's to see how you did not.
Maybe you believe their words more than their actions. I don't.
18 - Glenn Contrarian
Doug -
Then you haven't seen my defense of Ronald Reagan, whom I regard as one of America's greatest presidents. Yes, Reaganomics is continuing to badly damage the economy, and yes, there's millions of Americans who still think that 'government IS the problem'...but I've argued more than once that Reagan deserves the credit for winning the final victory in the Cold War - a war that could have ended with a worldwide nuclear holocaust - and by having won the Cold War without entering into large-scale combat operations against the Soviet Union when the future of the human race was at stake, President Reagan has earned (in my opinion) his place as one of America's greatest five presidents (after Washington, Lincoln and FDR, but ahead of Truman).
Doug, I really do try to never make an idle boast, and I really do try to not make claims I can't prove.
So do you have any other assumptions you wish to make about me?
19 - Glenn Contrarian
and btw - my defense of Reagan was against my fellow liberals here on BC.
20 - STM
Clav: "Anyone without a criminal record should be accepted here -- anyone."
Does that include Australian Miami golf-cart "borrowers" and an Australian who brought a big bag of Aussie one cent coins to use in US vending machines because they are the same size and weight as a certain US coin??
Just wondering, because if so, a certain person I know really well qualifies.
What is the statute of limitation on getting an almost-free free grape-soda??
I just want to come for a visit, BTW.
21 - Glenn Contrarian
STM - LOL!
22 - STM
In my defence, Glenn, I was only 22 at the time. Others who'd been there before were awake to the one-cent coin caper.
The border patrol incident in New Mexico was better, though. How was I to know that people were smuggling themselves in their hundreds across the Mexico/US border.
Seriously, without going into details about what happened, I'll just say that I look more like a Viking than a Mexican. If I'd been suspected of trying to sneak across the border from Sweden to Norway, I could understand.
I DO realise I might find it difficult to make myself understood in America, though, despite once being told by a woman on a plane: "You speak really good English".
"Thanks," I said, "So do you."
"Did you learn it in high school," she asked.
"Kind of," I replied, "Although I spent too much time daydreaming and missed a lot."
Lol. I love America.
23 - Christopher Rose
Horace, my father died when I was a kid; any chance you could adopt me?
Great lucid article.
24 - Baronius
Horace has had a life I can't imagine. It's twisted his thinking. It would be foolish to believe that so many racist sins of the past wouldn't create exactly this kind of damage; after all, that type of feedback loop is responsible for most of history's atrocities. But however much pity we may feel for Horace, we can't allow his racism to spread unnoticed. Ultimately, this article is a tribute to the perpetuation of racism into future generations.
25 - Cindy
Horace has had a life I [refuse to] imagine.
That's the problem, as far as I can tell.