The Death of Freddie Gray & Baltimore's Race Riot (Updated)

The headline article in the Daily Mail says: Huge blazes rip through Baltimore as Freddie Gray rioters torch buildings including a nursing home, loot stores and attack police, injuring fifteen officers, as violence rages into the night. Baltimore is indeed convulsing in race riots over the death of 25 year old black male, Freddie Gray. This is reminiscent of Detroit, 1967.

A week ago, Freddie Gray died in Baltimore City Police custody. Here is what we know. Approximately two weeks ago, Baltimore City Police officers showed up near where Mr. Gray was standing in public. Mr. Gray took off running. That gave police probable cause to stop him. Mr. Gray had no outstanding warrants. When police finally caught him, they did a search and found a small knife not unlike what millions of Americans carry around on their person every day, myself included. I am still not clear if it was a valid arrest even under insane Maryland law, but I think it was. Maryland is California writ small in terms of it being a leftist cesspool these days.

Mr. Gray was in good health when he was arrested and placed in the patrol car. Something happened during transport, precisely what is not clear, nor is it clear how long it took the police to get Mr. Gray medical attention. Mr. Gray died a week later of a severed spine sustained within an hour, if not minutes, of his arrest. This could be anything from simple negligence to murder.

The police seem to be doing the right thing in their investigation of the incident, and everything is being carried out in public. There has been no delay in the investigation, nor it would seem any attempt at a cover-up. And yet, Baltimore has exploded in black riots undertaken for no other reason than an opportunity to riot, apparently. The Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, has been worse than useless. She did not officially ask the Governor for help at the outset of the rioting, and indeed, went so far as to instruct Baltimore City Police to give space to the rioters that "wished to destroy."

The Mayor has gotten more than she bargained for. Thugs have turned Baltimore into a nightmare, with the more feral elements of the black community threatening anyone who isn't black. There is at least one report of a serious racial attack in Baltimore, and already fifteen police have been injured in the riots. Black street gangs have made common cause to stop attacking each other and concentrate on attacking the police. The Governor has declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard.

(H/T Instapundit)

Obama and the left have spent the last six years stoking racial tensions at every opportunity. In the absence of actual racism, they must still convince blacks in our country that we America is nothing more than Selma 1954 writ large. In the nightmarish fantasy world of the left, any effort to insure the integrity of the vote is somehow racism. Applying the same standards to all Americans in whatever context is somehow racist. George Zimmerman was a racist and Trayvon Martin was an innocent youth murdered in cold blood. In Ferguson, Missouri, an evil racist cop shot an unarmed gentle giant, Michael Brown, just as he had raised his hands in surrender.

Before 1968, when the leadership of the civil rights movement was in the hands of a Republican, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the clarion call of the movement was for a colorblind society with equality of opportunity. After the left took over the civil rights movement, they morphed the movement into one where blacks were to become a permanent victim class, a color-centric group forever entitled to special treatment and equality of outcome. Dr. King's niece, Dr. Alveda King, said in an interview yesterday that if her uncle could see the riots in Baltimore, "he would be hearbroken."

I have no doubt that she is right. The people of Baltimore and this nation have every right to be angry about what happened to Freddie Gray and to demand justice on his behalf. That is not what these riots are about. The rioters are people, many in systemic poverty, who have been fed for the past fifty years on a steady diet that they are victims, that their number one problem is white racism, and that they are entitled both to special treatment and to act out. The issues facing the lower socioeconomic strata of the black community - endemic poverty, single parent homes, horrid educational opportunities, violence and criminality - are real and pervasive, but white racism is not among them. And until the actual issues are addressed honestly, they will never even begin to be solved.

And in all fairness to the good people of Baltimore, black and white, the majority are not involved in this riot. It is a clique of thugs and young people, some of whom clearly have parents outraged at the actions of their children. Update: Indeed, indications are that at the heart of this violent rioting are elements of the groups involved in instigating the violence in Ferguson. That would not surprise me in the least. And it is to the honor of the family of Freddie Gray that they have spoken out clearly condemning the violence and rioting that occurred in the wake of Mr. Gray's funeral, and believe it to be motivated by concerns other than the death of Mr. Gray.

From Hot Air, here is a video of one Baltimore Mom delivering an epic whooping to a son she saw rioting in what Hot Air is calling the "slap heard round the world."

Updates:



That child doesn't realize it at the moment, but he has a damn good mom.

There is also another video out of a retired Army MSG facing down the rioters in Baltimore. There is no organization as fully and successfully integrated as the U.S. military. It is what our nation should be aspiring to, not the balkanization of the left.



At any rate, the problems giving rise to these riots are not something the left wants to cure. The race hustlers have already started to portray what is happening in Baltimore as an eruption of anger at racist police, just as they did in Ferguson - that even though Baltimore's Mayor, the majority of its city government, and indeed, the majority of its police force are black. It has already started with Representative Elijah Cummings, from Maryland, who recently stated:

"This whole police community relations situation . . . is the civil rights cause for this generation, no doubt about it," . . .

Cummings noted that the Maryland delegation in Congress had asked for the Department of Justice to conduct a civil rights investigation into the death of Gray.

"We've got to take this department apart and try to figure out what is wrong and what is right," he said, referring to local police.

Just sickening. So, there will be another investigation by the DOJ. Prepare for a repeat of the Ferguson scenario. No racism will be found in the arrest of Freddie Gray, though I am sure they will find negligence in his treatment, or it could even rise to the level of murder. Then there will be a disparate impact statistical analysis of incidents in Baltimore and, lo and behold, it will show a higher incidence of arrest among blacks in proportion to their representation in the city. Wait for yet another DOJ lawsuit against the city and more NAACP mailers to raise money off of racism rampant in society, as alleged in the DOJ report. And of course, the next race riot will be in the offing, blacks will continue to vote 90% for Democrats, and their plight, worse now then in 1964 when this embrace of the Democrat Party began, will not improve in the slightest.

Update: From the left wing side of the media, here are ten tweets that really need to be seen to be believed. The least offensive is from Jamil Smith stating that the rioters are merely children attempting to communicate. The most offensive are from Vox, Salon and Te-Nehisi Coates apparently in full support of the violence. On CNN, Anchorwoman Brooke Baldwin has placed the cause of these riots at not merely the feet of the Baltimore City Police, but more particularly, military veterans hired into the police force who she thinks are all too ready to do violence.

This from former U.S. Rep. and former U.S. Army LTC Allen West:

[W]hat is playing out before our eyes is the depraved spectacle of anarchy, violence, wanton criminality and an utter lack of leadership. To have the mayor of Baltimore issue a statement allowing these thugs “space to destroy” is unconscionable. Is the rioting over Gray’s death or just an excuse for the most disgusting aspect of human nature? . . .

But the fact that police officers are being injured and that three black gangs have pledged allegiance in order to attack police is beyond disconcerting. What is there to gain by destroying one’s own neighborhood? Is this the new mantra of “no justice, no peace?”

Perhaps this would be somewhat understandable if it weren’t for the recent episode in North Charleston, South Carolina where a police officer fired several shots into the back of Walter L. Scott, killing him. There were no violent riots and the officer was arrested and charged. The Scott family even went so far as to demand that Al Sharpton not come to Charleston.

But in Baltimore they’ve had to cancel a baseball game and there are warnings for people to stay away from the city. The governor has finally declared a state of emergency to activate the National Guard. But where is the mayor of Baltimore? Where is the leadership for the city? Imagine the horns of a dilemma upon which the Baltimore police find themselves. The mayor basically gave carte blanche to the criminal thugs to take the streets and the police seemingly are only employed to try and contain the “destruction.”

As of now, 15 police officers have been injured. As the NY Post reported, “Baltimore police officers were injured on Monday as rioters threw bricks, broke windows, looted businesses and burned patrol cars in violent protests following the funeral of a black man who died after he was injured in police custody. The riots broke out just a few blocks from the site of the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in northwest Baltimore and then spread through other parts of the city in the most violent demonstrations since looting in Ferguson, Missouri, last year.

Television images showed mobs of rioters jumping on top of a police car, destroying a taxi and setting two other patrol cars on fire after teenaged crowds ignored calls to disperse and clashed with lines of hundreds of police. Gangs had threatened to target police officers, local law enforcement said. Schools, businesses and train stations closed in Baltimore, a city of 662,000 people 40 miles (64 km) from the nation’s capital.”

So we are watching the result of a social media post calling for a “purge” for Monday at 3pm. But this is not just about the death of Freddie Gray, this is about something far more tragic: the breakdown of the inner city and the black community.

Where are the parents of these kids? Where are the adults and community pastors? Why are these kids responding to this call for violence instead of heading home and preparing for end of year final exams? Does anyone believe these looted businesses will be restored — therefore black unemployment in Baltimore will be even worse. Perhaps if there were a thriving job market and better opportunities, these black teens would be working in these stores, not looting them.

When I was watching the TV reports, Baltimore looked more like East Jerusalem than an American city with a proud patriotic heritage — Ft. McHenry the birthplace of our national anthem. And this is a city just some 40 miles away from our nation’s capitol — where is the leadership that demands this behavior is unacceptable?

The Baltimore police are showing incredible restraint because we all know the liberal progressive media is just waiting for some unarmed — although I consider tossing a brick a projectile — black kid to get shot.

My greatest fear is that there will come a day when police basically leave the urban communities to their own devices — in other words, abandon them and let them be overrun by gangs and other perpetrators of deplorable behavior. After all, the anarchist sentiment is to not abide by the rule of law — but rather to take matters into the hands of the mob and establish the rule of mobocracy. And if there are no elected officials willing to support the police — realizing that there are bad apples in any batch — then what is the motivation for police officers to patrol those disrespectful and unwelcoming streets?

Freddie Gray tragically lost his life, we know little about how or why. What we do know is that the black community of Baltimore is not comporting itself in a manner that will garner sympathy — but rather contempt.

The joys of living in the post-racial world of the left. It is obscene, not just that a segment of the black community should be acting out like this, but that the issues actually facing their community go unaddressed.

Update: At Powerline, Paul Mirengoff makes the point that these riots are not about racism or the Baltimore City Police:

The Post’s reporting suggests that, at root, the protests aren’t about the police department (which, as noted, is not a White institution and almost certainly not a racist one). One of the protest leaders said:

Officials are not interested in bettering our neighborhoods. People are tired of their quality of life, and they’re frustrated nobody helps them. They want to be heard, and they will do what it takes.

In other words, a population grown dependent on public officials is lashing out because said officials aren’t helping them attain the quality of life they desire.

I agree that the hard-working people of Baltimore have been let down by public officials. For one thing, liberal public policy has encouraged dependence on “officials.” For another, liberal housing policy helped produce the economic crisis that hit Baltimore so hard. In addition, liberal education policy has undermined educational opportunity. And now, liberal immigration policy seems determined to bring in foreign laborers to compete for jobs with hard-working, low-income Americans.

I find it depressing to see Baltimore in such a sorry state while Washington, D.C., fueled by the federal government, flourishes by comparison.

Obama spoke up on just that topic today, claiming that if Republicans would just pass an infrastructure bill, that would solve the problems actually at the root of the rioting. The left is completely out of ideas at this point. The solutions tried since the Great Society have not simply failed, but have made matters worse, and the only option remaining for the left is to pretend that the problems plaguing inner city blacks are all external. One wonders how much longer that canard will work?

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Race & Gender Politics & Our Military

The Obama administration, on one hand, is attempting to use the military to promote its left wing social policies at whatever the expense to our combat effectiveness. On the other hand, the administration is trying to impose its racially divisive politics on the services.

Here's the's problem with the latter. There is no more fully and harmoniously integrated institution in the world than the U.S. military. I can speak from experience on this, having spent ten years as an infantry officer in multiple units. During my entire time in service, I never once saw an incident of racism. Any that do occur are very much discrete and anamolous, far outside the norm. It is not a mischaracterization at all to say that the members of the military see themselves as a band of brothers (and sisters) and that the skin color of soldiers is camo green. So when the administration tries to convince soldiers that racism is problematic in the military, the reaction of soldiers is no surprise. This from an article at The Blaze today, Army Soldiers Sit Through ‘White Privilege’ Presentation — and the Backlash Isn’t Pretty:

The U.S. Army is investigating an unauthorized diversity training presentation on “white privilege” shown to hundreds of Georgia soldiers, USA Today reported, citing an Army spokeswoman.

The Equal Opportunity training presentation was shown to about 400 soldiers of the 67th Signal Battalion at Fort Gordon on Thursday, according to Captain Lindsay Roman.

The portion of the program involved a slide projected on a screen entitled ”The Luxury of Obliviousness,” which listed elements of “white privilege.”

“Race privilege gives whites little reason to pay a lot of attention to African Americans or to how white privilege affects them. ‘To be white in American (sic) means not having to think about it,’” one bullet point read.

After an image of the slide was posted to a Facebook page, the reaction was swift and pointed.

“That should be instant UCMJ and Dishonorable Discharge for the instructor who deviated in this manner,” George Stevens wrote.

“Pretty sick of hearing about white privilege. Nearly my entire chain of command and NCO support channel have been Hispanic or black since I joined,” Tim Wilson Jr. added.

“True story: I went to a forced EEO class and the white female SSG said we white folks were a problem. I looked around the room and everyone of every race were rolling their eyes,” Scott Hampton Truelove recalled. “We of all races went fishing, eating out, having BBQs, went to the club, together. We all never had a problem with race. We as a group stood up and walked out. She was cutting into our beer drinking time.” . . .

The fantasy the left spins in the political world, pretending that America is still 1954 Selma writ large and that racism is rampant and the single greatest problem facing minorities, simply cannot even begin to get a foothold in our military. Indeed, it is an utter travesty that the left wants to stoke racial tensions in an organization that is in reality the model for what racial integration and harmony can and should be.

The article goes on to point out that the administration points to a "diversity" problem in the military because, while 18% of soldiers are black, only 10% of the officer corps are black. Statistics of course, do not prove racism in any context, regardless of how much the left would like to claim. Could there be a reason for this disparity?

Well, one, military enlistment has long been seen as a stepping stone to the middle class for blacks, so it is no surprise at all that the number of black enlisted soldiers in a volunteer army is significantly higher than the proportion of blacks in our population as a whole -- about 12%. Two, becoming an officer requires a college degree. Given the horrid state of education that a significant proportion of blacks face, perhaps the problem is not that blacks are being rejected disproportionately for the officer ranks based on race, but, might it be something to do with inner city schools controlled by politicians and teachers' unions?

But the overlay of racial politics on the military is not the Obama administration's only sin. Far more problematic is the unilateral decision of the administration to allow women into combat units. I've said countless times, even leaving aside all of the issues with unit cohesion that this would inevitably cause, the simple fact is that the only way to allow women into combat units in any number would be seriously degrade physical standards. This today from AP:

Surveys find that men in U.S. special operations forces do not believe women can meet the physical and mental demands of their commando jobs, and they fear the Pentagon will lower standards to integrate women into their elite units, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Some of those concerns were not limited to men, researchers found, but also were found among women in special operations jobs.

Dan Bland, force management director for U.S. Special Operations Command, told the AP that the survey results have "already driven us to do some different things in terms of educating the force."

About 68,800 people serve in the command, including 3,000 civilians. The main survey went to about 18,000 people who are in positions closed to women, and the response was about 50 percent. The high response rate, officials said, reflects the wide interest in the subject.

The studies are part of the Pentagon's effort to open all military combat positions to women or provide reasons why any jobs should remain closed. . . .

Just sickening. And purely political. Does anyone recall a single study done before this decision was made to determine whether allowing women into combat units would enhance our military effectiveness? Of course not. And the fact that we have officers in flag rank who merely stand by and allow this to happen tells you all you need to know about how politicized our military has become. If this policy is allowed to continue in force after the Obama administration leaves in 2017, our nation will pay a significant price in the blood of our soldiers come the next war, all for the sake of leftist politics.

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The Past Will Come Back To Haunt Us:

The iconic Halloween monster is undying - whether it be demons, vampires, Michael Myers or Freddy Kruger. They keep coming back to do us harm.

And so it is with the policy of the modern far left - horrifying and undying. In this instance, the same policies that gave us the financial meltdown of 2008 are not merely alive and well, but being strengthened under Obama.

In 2008, I composed a long post, Hurricane Subprime, taking an in depth look at the causes of our economic meltdown. The "but for" cause of the Great Recession was social engineering that eviscerated color-blind credit rating standards. And as I pointed out when Dodd Frank was proposed, the Obama administration, rather than correcting this insanity, actually doubled down on it. Now this from Power Line:

The Obama administration is pressing ahead with its plan to impose racial quotas on the financial industry via the Dood-Frank law. Dodd-Frank requires agencies with financial sector regulatory responsibilities to “establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion” that will develop diversity and inclusion standards for workplaces and contracting.

Accordingly, these agencies have published in the Federal Register a proposed “Policy Statement Establishing Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of Entities Regulated by the Agencies.” As Roger Clegg reports, that Statement, which applies not only to the agencies themselves but also to all those regulated by it, insists on the use of “metrics” and “percentage[s]“ to ensure compliance with the diversity requirement.

In other words it imposes quotas — quotas that will apply to hiring, promotion, and contracting.

There’s plenty of irony here; for it was the imposition of race-conscious lending practices on the banking industry that led to the financial crisis, that led to Dodd-Frank. . . .

This is horrendous. But as bad as it is, it is not the only devastating policy that gave us the melt-down - and which remains ensconced in our financial system. As I pointed out in Hurricane Subprime, the only unknown at the time was how the Credit Rating Bureaus played into all of this. They were supposed to be the backstop which would have prevented the financial crisis. But these agencies were wholly complicit in giving AAA ratings to subprime mortgage backed securities so that they could be traded throughout our financial system - many institutions by law can only purchase AAA rated securities. Clearly these rating agencies did not function as they should have. The "why" was finally answered in a superb article in Rolling Stone, The Last Mystery Of The Financial Crisis:

Thanks to a mountain of evidence gathered for a pair of major lawsuits by the San Diego-based law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, documents that for the most part have never been seen by the general public, we now know that the nation's two top ratings companies, Moody's and S&P, have for many years been shameless tools for the banks, willing to give just about anything a high rating in exchange for cash.

In incriminating e-mail after incriminating e-mail, executives and analysts from these companies are caught admitting their entire business model is crooked.

"Lord help our fucking scam . . . this has to be the stupidest place I have worked at," writes one Standard & Poor's executive. "As you know, I had difficulties explaining 'HOW' we got to those numbers since there is no science behind it," confesses a high-ranking S&P analyst. "If we are just going to make it up in order to rate deals, then quants [quantitative analysts] are of precious little value," complains another senior S&P man. "Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of card[s] falters," ruminates one more. . . .

Do read the whole article - it will leave you wanting to grab the pitchforks and torches. It should also be noted that Obama has not put a single one of these people in jail. Sure, there have been a few civil suits that have amounted to hitting up organizations for a bit of their pocket change. But countless people who committed outright fraud, albeit almost forced to by Barney Frank and the left, have skated because, to hold them accountable would require that the whole house of cards created by left be exposed.

It should also be noted from the article that a simple fix to this utterly broken credit rating system was actually proposed by Sen. Al Franken. It died - I hate to say this - in the Republican controlled House. It is just beyond belief.

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An After Hours Black Break-In

Another story about blacks of note in the news today.

Four black men went into a deserted convenience store after hours. They picked up batteries, sun glasses, etc. and then they . . . . paid for them. Under the impression that the store was open - the store's lights were on and the lock on the front door had malfunctioned - the four men, football players at William Patterson University, tried to find a clerk. Unable to do so, they worked out the costs of their purchases and left the money next to the cash register.

In all fairness to the four men, they not merely acted honestly, but they acted with good character. The test for character is this - how do you act when no one is looking. Well, these men passed a test many others of all colors would fail in today's America. Their parents should indeed be proud of them.



Having spent much of my life in the highly integrated world of the infantry, these were the type of people of all colors whom I lived with and was proud to call my friends and co-workers. In the political arena, as the left tries to paint the right as inveterate racists, and people like me on the right are responding in part by pointing to the failings in civilian black society that the left are ignoring for political reasons, its nice to be reminded that, in the real world, the vast majority of blacks are simply honest Americans who try to do the right thing. The problems of today will be solved, certainly not by Rev. Al or Jessee, but by men like this.

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A Note To Ann Althouse - To Fix Black Society, Follow The Example Of Martin Luther King Jr.

What is it with those on the right, that either they argue with no passion or they simply cede ground to the left, as if engaging in the arguments is distasteful? Case in point - James Taranto's article in WSJ stating lukewarm disagreement with Ann Althouse that the right should not be pointing out white on black violence in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting.

In the Trayvon Martin shooting, the race hustlers of the left saw an opportunity to argue to the black community that white racism was still alive and their greatest enemy. To say that they grossly overreached is an understatement.

There is a backlash now to that from many on the right who see the canard - and indeed, are its targets. And the most obvious response is to point to outrageous acts of black criminality against whites, asking the civil rights community to address it. It is a trap of course, as to address this violence, they would open up the entire can of worms on the ills of black society. Thus it is something both the left and Ms. Althouse would studiously ignore. She labels such acts as "counter Trayvoning." According to her, as quoted in the WSJ:

Conservatives have rested on the principle of colorblindness for a long time, and they've taken abuse for it. Look at how left liberals abuse Chief Justice Roberts for writing, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." They consider that kind of talk naive (at best). They push the perceived sophistication of what Justice Blackmun said back in the first affirmative action case: "In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way."

Those are the 2 well-defined and socially presentable opinions in this country, and decent, sincere Americans have argued from these positions for decades. Now, we're seeing some conservatives who seem frustrated by this taking account of race that's been done on the left. They seem to think it's a good time to spotlight violence committed by black people. This is not a good idea! It's fine to mourn Shorty, but these candlelight vigils are intended to stir hearts the way hearts were stirred at the Trayvon Martin demonstrations.

. . . To stir hearts counter-Trayvonistically is to nurture feelings that white people are oppressed by black people. This alternative to colorblindness is profoundly stupid. 1. It abandons the easy to express, principled position that many people perceive as the high ground. 2. It steps into the arena of taking account of race, where the left liberals would love to take you on. And 3. It gives air to the white supremacists among us. These people have been outcasts for a long time, but they exist, perhaps not quite yet recognizing what they are.

One, while a color blind society is absolutely what we should all strive for, that will not happen by conservatives ignoring race out of distaste for the argument. Ms. Althouse fully misperceives what is moral in this case. In all cases, facing problems and facing them with honesty defines the moral highground. When the left interprets everything through a racial lens and regularly makes outrageous charges of racism, then following Ms. Althouse's prescription would mean we cede the argument to the left. It is being in a war where only one side is allowed to fight.

Two, her claim that it steps "into the arena of taking account of race, where the left liberals would love to take you," is simply ridiculous. The left wholly ignores problems in the black community because they do not want to have to address them. Indeed, the left attacks any attempt by the right to raise address these problems by anyone on the right as ipso facto racism. The absolute last thing the left wants is an honest conversation "into the arena taking account of race." Indeed, as James Taranto points out in his WSJ article, "counter Trayvoning" has provoked liberals into dismissive responses, and thus might not be such a bad thing.

Lastly, her claim that to raise issues of color would give succor to white supremacists is a non-sequitur. White supremacists are and should always be outcasts. But demanding changes in and for the benefit of the black community in order to finally realize equality is an entirely different animal. At some level, doing so might provide temporary succor to supremacists, but the moral imperative to help black society is far and away more important, and in the end, wholly contradicts the goals of white supremacists. Ms. Althouse's argument seems to be analogous to the argument that children should not be inoculated against disease because some small portion of them will become very sick from the inoculation, irrespective of the fact that many more will be helped.

Indeed, Ms. Althouse's argument is taking a tack precisely opposite that followed by Martin Luther King Jr. His most powerful speech, given those fifty years ago, honestly addressed the problems of race, stated the moral imperative, and shamed white America into agreement that equality should be an overriding goal in America. As he said, blacks had come to Washington to cash the check that said "that all men are created equal." I concur, but we won't get there by following the advice of Ms. Althouse and ignoring race.

America should indeed be a land of colorblind equality where racism should not be tolerated. Fixing the plight of blacks in America today is every bit the moral imperative it was in 1963. There should not be massive, cyclical poverty for over 25% of blacks. Blacks should not have the worst jobless rate in America. Black children should have the same educational opportunities as whites. Black families should not be dysfunctional, with almost 3 out of every 4 children born to single mothers. And crime should not be disproportionately a problem of the black community, with blacks far more likely to commit violent crime, including murder and robbery. This state of black America is obscene in the 21st century. But, but, but . . . those problems are not the work of conservative white racism.

The idealists of the 60′s, JFK, Patrick Moynihan and their ilk, were deeply concerned and doing what they thought best to truly help the black community. Well, they shot their bullets and, while some of what they did helped spectacularly – the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act – other things that they did failed equally spectacularly – welfare and public education.

If the left could find a way out of this that would not result in their own weakening – or even perhaps demise – they would, I am sure, jump on it. Their catch-22 is that such a solution does not exist.

For the far left to truly address the problems plaguing the black community today would mean addressing failures of left wing programs. It would mean taking on the teachers unions (the group that underwrote the MLK 50th anniversary race hustler palooza a few days ago). It would mean taking a stand on traditional morality. The mortal danger to the left in doing so is that it would fracture the blacks as a monolithic voting block. And in an age where only a few percentage points of votes are what separate Republicans from Democrats, that could well be catastrophic for the left. They are quite happy to leave the black community to wallow in horrendous dysfunction so long as they can make money and gain power off their backs.

So the left continues to beat the drum of imaginary racism as the only true ill of black society. At the same time, they studiously ignore all the problems of the black community. The only way to address this issue is to do what Martin Luther King Jr. did. To raise the problems continuously, to do so with utter honesty, and to refuse to be cowed into silence, whether by the left or Ms. Althouse.

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Obama's Speech & Links On The Anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech

On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave the single most compelling speech in our nation's history on the moral necessity of judging people by the content of their character, not the color of our skin. It change our nation's trajectory.



As we await comments from our Race Hustler In Chief, here are some links relevant to the day.

Here is my take on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, something that was once concerned with equality, but now exists because of its value as a political tool for the left - The Civil Rights Movement, The Left & The Legacy of MLK

Perhaps the most thoughtful column of today comes from Dr. Ben Carson, who reflects on MLK and the Civil Rights movement of today in the Washington Times.

James Taranto at the WSJ ponders why the left needs to maintain the canard of rampant white racism in three parts - I, II and III.

Black Professor John McWhorter, who writes for TNR, takes to the WSJ to make the point that fifty years on, white racism is not the overriding issue facing blacks in America today. I agree with his conclusion, though I think that his assessment of the challenges is off.

At Black & Right, Bob Parks ponders the conservative messages of MLK in his famous 1963 speech, concluding with his own "dream" for Americans.

From Bookworm Room, Martin Luther King III Rejects His Father's Legacy & Goes To Washington To Parrot The Race Hustlers and her Thoughts On Race & Racism In America.

Update: You can read President Obama's speech here. As to the speakers in the lead up to Obama, not a single one mentioned the near total breakdown of the black family with nearly three quarters born to single mothers. Not a single one spoke to the problems of serious crime in the black community. Not a single one spoke to the problems of failing schools and the fact that DOJ is now pursuing a law suit in Louisiana to keep black children there in those feeling schools.

If we go down the checklist: Trayvon Martin - check. Stand your ground laws - check. Voter integrity laws - check. White racism today - check. Chris Lane - no. Delbert Benton - no. Fannie Gumbinger - no. Amelia Rudolph - no. Ginger Slepski - no. Indeed, no victim of feral black teen youths were mentioned, even though their acts are symptomatic of the real, true problems facing black society today.

And then there was Obama's speech. He did mention the same of the things above, but surely did not articulate anything resembling a clear message that these are the overriding problems of the black community, that they are not caused by racism, and that blacks need to focus on solving those problems within their community. His central message was that those who disagree with him are racists and what Blacks really need is more socialism, at one point suggesting how evil rich people were for hanging on to their money when it could be used to fund teachers unions crumbling schools.

What I found most sickening about Obama's speech was that he spoke of the economy as if he has had nothing to do with it over the past near 5 years. Obama's economic policies have done more harm to blacks in America in the past five years than the worst racist of whom any can conceive. Obama lambasted crony capitalism, as if it was something that was totally unconnected from this administration. And he spoke about the lack of good job opportunities when it's purely his policies that are turning us into a nation of part time Mc-workers.

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99 Years Old Fannie Gumbinger -- Will Obama Mention Her In His Speech On MLK Wednesday?

Fannie Gumbinger was a 99 year old woman living in Poughkeepsie, NY. She had lived through WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. What she couldn't live through was meeting a member of the feral black underclass. She was murdered on Friday by Javon Tyrek Rogers, a 20 year old black who made his living by burglary.

How morally bankrupt must one's culture be in order to allow one to murder a 99 year old woman. The American Thinker has a post on The Faces Of Evil, covering some of the more notable members of the feral black underclass that have committed outrageous acts of violence. The article then concludes:

§ Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery.

§ The best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percent of the population that is black and Hispanic.

§ Blacks are 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against whites then vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit a robbery.

§ The death toll from murder in Chicago over the last decade exceeds the death toll of our soldiers in Afghanistan since the beginning of that war. [Handgun purchases are not allowed in Chicago.]

§ Nearly 3/4 of black children are born out of wedlock. Generations of children are being raise without fathers.

§ Academic achievement for black students is appallingly low, despite a large amount of money being spent to provide that group with educational opportunities.

Now consider the fact that decent black people are the people who are most harmed by this violent subculture. They are the closest to the problem and suffer the most from it. But we all suffer from this growing cancer and ignoring the problem is simply one way to commit national suicide.

This problem is not about skin color. The real problem is bad values. There is nothing about having melanin in your skin that will protect you from the natural consequences of destructive values. Violent, hostile, uneducated, misogynistic men who do not care for their children will not be successful... anywhere, ever. And no civilization can survive the degradation of its women. Thug culture celebrates the degradation of women.

The many problems facing blacks in America don't spring from even a residue of white racism. MLK Jr.'s speech fifty years ago called on America to act with moral clarity on the issue of race. He was right, and he has largely succeeded. The problems facing blacks in America today are internal. Will anyone in the civil rights movement of today actually start addressing the real problems?

The short answer to that is no. Perhaps the most telling part of the memorial to MLK Jr. held last week, with people like Congressman John Lewis, Rev. Al and MLK III as the key speakers, was that it was largely paid for by teachers unions, the single greatest enemy of blacks today. Unless and until some blacks at the grass roots level figure out that they are being cynically manipulated for money and power, nothing in their world will change. Meanwhile, the Reverends Al and Jessee will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Update: And, on cue, the Reverend Jackson sticks up his head, not to talk about the problems in the black community, nor to talk about Fannie Gumbinger or Chris Lane, but to make the claim that the real thing for blacks to be afraid of is The Tea Party:

Jesse Jackson has no doubt that on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Republican opposition to President Obama’s policies is motivated by racial animus reminiscent of the Civil War-era South. “The tea party is the resurrection of the Confederacy, it’s the Fort Sumter tea party,” Jackson told Politico’s Glenn Thrush.

Fight. Hey, if your black in America, Jesse has your back. And your back will stay planted right where it is so long as you keep buying the poison he is selling you.

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Krauthammer & O'Reilly: A Wholly Bankrupt "Civil Rights" Movement (Updated)

I normally don't require validation for my thoughts and beliefs, but when it comes from Charles Krauthammer, it is always welcome. He opines below about Obama's likely topic for the speech Obama will give on the 50 year anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech - racist voting rights laws:



That is the drum I've been beating for years now. Blacks are being used by the left - and that includes their 'civil rights leaders' - in ways that give new meaning to the word "cynical." I credit blacks with the same intellectual capacity as all other beings on this earth. Indeed, many are smarter than I. But those blacks who are actually buying what the far left is selling them - that the biggest problems facing the black community today are "racist" voting rights laws and stand your ground laws - they are dumber than dirt. There just is no other possible conclusion.

For example, see:

Do Blacks Buy This Crap?

A Racial Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Black Civil Rights Leaders No Longer Have A Dream

Chris Lane: A Real "Trayvon" Case, But Where Are The Race Hustlers?

All Of The Stars Align - Time For Republicans To Court The Black Vote

Update: Bill O'Reilly hits the nail on the head:



My hats off to O'Reilly for making the plight of black America his focus and keeping at it for the past few weeks. The straw that broke the camel's back for O'Reilly on this were the race hustlers who went into overdrive in their efforts to lynch George Zimmerman on the alter of racial politics. It was their effort to portray America of today as not more than 1955 Mississippi writ large while wholly ignoring the real issues of black America that finally proved too much for O'Reilly.

Finally, finally, someone with a platform is saying the hard truths and doing so repeatedly. It is my sincerest hope that O'Reilly keeps this up - and that at least some blacks take the message to heart. As I have said over and over again, there is no excuse for black America to be lagging behind in this nation in the 21st century America. The problems in the black community - education, poverty, joblessness, family, crime - that these continue to exist today, are an obscenity.



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Feral Black Teens At Work

Here is the report from the MSM in Spokane, Washington:

WWII veteran Delbert Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two [_________] teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office says Belton died of blunt facial and head injuries.

Witnesses say Belton was in the parking lot of the Eagles Lodge at 6410 N. Lidgerwood, adjacent to the Eagles Ice-A-Rena, around 8 p.m. Wednesday when the two [_________] male suspects attacked him as he was about to head inside to play pool.

Police responded with K-9s to track the suspects' scent but were not able to locate them.

"It does appear random. He was in the parking lot, it appears he was assaulted in the parking lot and there was no indication that he would have known these people prior to the assault," Spokane Police Major Crimes Detective Lieutenant Mark Griffiths said.

Belton died from his injuries Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

"Shorty," as he was known by his friends at the Eagles Lodge, served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during WWII and was shot in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa. He went on to work at Kaiser Aluminum at the company's Trentwood plant for more than 30 years. Belton's wife passed away several years ago.

He loved playing pool, even though he claimed he was no good at it and had been a member of the Eagles Lodge for the last four months. In addition to playing pool he loved working on cars.

Shorty was Ted Denison's best friend of 23 years; the two played pool occasionally and worked on cars daily.

"He was always there for me when I needed him," Denison said. "We'd joke back and forth. We were always having fun, some sort of fun."

He was the kind of nice old man who'd become your friend in minutes. . . .

See if you can fill in the missing word in the above report. After sitting through six months of the race hustlers trying to lynch George Zimmerman on the alter of racial politics, I think its time to demand that they start addressing the real problems of the black community.

And while the MSM is refusing to publish the race of feral black teens, we learn that the black teen who pulled the trigger on Chris Lane hated whites and posted on knocking out five whites to get justice for Trayvon Martin. That from an aussie news outlet; it won't make the MSM over here. Instead, we are being treated to a fictitious take on race and racism in The Butler.

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Chris Lane: A Real "Trayvon" Case - But Where Are The Race Hustlers?

(Photo via Crusader Rabbit)

The canard pushed by the left in the Trayvon Martin case is that Zimmerman stalked Trayvon and then, without justification of any kind (they gloss over Trayvon's attack of Zimmerman and the fact that Zimmerman had already called the police), shot Trayvon in cold blood. Some of the most avid race hustling pimps are comparing that shooting to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a black teen who was killed after flirting with a white woman in Mississippi.

Well, we have a real life example of the Trayvon story today - and a murder even more senseless than Till's. Three feral black teens in Oklahoma saw a white jogger run by, then for no apparent reason - one claims they were "bored" - got in their car, stalked him and shot him to death.

The white jogger was a 22 year old Aussie in the U.S. on a baseball scholarship. The feral black teens were Chancey Allen Luna, 16, James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, and Michael Dewayne Jones, 17. All are shown on this video (that happens to be an Aussie news site - strangely, I do not know that any MSM site in the US has identified the three feral teens by their race)



So which of those three feral black teens will we hear Obama claim to look just like his would-be son?

Or when will we hear from the race hustling community on this one. Rev. Al? Jesse Jackson? Henry Louis Gates, Jr? Attorney General Eric Holder? Oprah? Hillary Clinton? Anyone? Come on, isn't it long past time to hold a real the conversation on race?

While they are silent, we do have sheer idiocy coming from some on the left. Here is Piers Morgan's tweet on the issue: "When an innocent Australian student is shot dead in Oklahoma for 'fun' - America's gun crisis becomes the world's problem." It just makes my blood boil.

No, Piers, guns are inanimate objects. The only way you get to argue about a "gun crisis" is by skipping over the real issue - a black subculture that is completely dysfunctional. And that is perhaps our most serious national issue.

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Do Black's Buy This Crap?

Meant to blog this earlier in the week but have been overcome by work.

If you are black and you believe that the greatest of threats to the black community are "racist" laws to insure the integrity of the ballot box, you are either a person making your living off of the racial grievance industry or an utter fool. If you found yourself nodding when Hillary Clinton tried to play you on Day One of her campaign for the presidency, you are ignorant of most, if not all, the relevant facts.



Ask yourself why Hillary and every politician on the left is trying to make you angry about voting laws. Those are laws that protect the vote of blacks and whites alike. Not a single one of those laws have been shown to have disenfranchised a single black voter. Or ask yourself why these same people are making Stand Your Ground laws such an important issue when such laws had nothing to do with the Trayvon Martin case (and indeed, which laws are invoked most often by black defendants)? Now ask yourself why not a one of these politicians is talking about the black community's problems with unemployment (over 50% for teens), poverty (risen to over 25% for blacks under Obama), education (the "civil rights issue of our time"), crime, or family?

For god's sake, think for yourself.

Is there still some racism against blacks on the fringes of America - I am sure there is. There is no place for it, and when found, it should be punished. But the unvarnished truth is that white racism is no longer any sort of major problem in this country, nor does it play any sort identifiable role in the problems facing the black community. So why then does every left wing politician from Hillary on down want to pretend that it is?

The answer is simple - they need the black vote to stay in power, but you might stop doing that if you start demanding that they actually address the problems besetting blacks today. Addressing those problems would mean two things. One, they would have to admit the problems are not caused by white racism. Two, it would soon become obvious that the left puts blacks far down on the list of interest groups. For instance, teacher's unions are the single most moneyed interest in the left's pantheon, and in any conflict between blacks and the teacher's unions, blacks come out on the short end of the stick. Or for that matter, take the DC City Council that is now driving Walmart out of the city at the behest of unions. With it goes thousands of jobs and the availability of low priced products. Do you really think that decision is being made in the best interest of the black community in DC? If you do, please, do the world a favor, don't reproduce.

For God's sake, wake up! Step off the left's plantation and look around. Hold the people you would elect accountable. The day the left is unable to take your vote for granted is the day the situation of blacks in this country will begin to greatly improve.

On a side note, it is not only blacks who are treated this way by the left - it is virtually their entire staple of low information voters. I blogged years ago about my horror at how MoveOn.org operated - asking people to act on pure emotion with no discussion whatsoever about policies. They tell you what to think and demonize any who do not agree. At Powerline, they make that same observation today. They are still operating on pure demonization and hate.

In the words of Instapundit: "Fuck ‘em. I’ve had it with this crap." Good. Glad to see the anger. We need ton's more of such anger if this "crap" is ever going to be stopped.

Over at RWN, John Hawkins has posted his Eleven Liberal Rules For Racism In America. Many of his points go directly to what I have addressed above:

1) Liberals aren’t held to the same rules as Republicans: When liberals say racist things, it’s just excused out of hand as if it’s no big deal. . . . [This holds not merely for racism, but the most venomous reverse racism as well - Jeremiah Wright being but the small tip of that iceberg.]

2) Minority racism must be ignored: According to Rasmussen polling, “Thirty-seven percent (37%) of American Adults think most black Americans are racist, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. . . . [T]he most grotesque examples of racism from minorities are just shrugged off

. 3) You pay no penalty for falsely accusing people of racism: False accusations of racism can do just as much damage as actual racism. People can be ostracized for it, lose endorsement deals or even lose their jobs over being falsely accused of racism. Yet, the only reason you’ve heard of people like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Touré, and Melissa Harris-Perry is because they’re willing to accuse people of being racists on the flimsiest of pretexts. It’s tempting to compare these race-hustling poverty pimps to the KKK, but the more appropriate analogy is the Spanish Inquisition. The attitude is, “So what if we unjustly accuse a lot of people as long as we get a few heretics in the process?”

4) Outrage matters more than facts: It doesn’t matter what Bush actually did in New Orleans or that the local government failed the people of the city; it matters how people FEEL about it. It doesn’t matter that Democrats have run Detroit since 1962; it matters that people FEEL Republicans are responsible. It doesn’t matter that Trayvon Martin wasn’t really a twelve year old kid and that he was slamming George Zimmerman’s head into the pavement; it matters that Zimmerman’s acquittal FEELS symbolic of law-abiding black Americans being profiled because so many other black Americans are criminals. Once an accusation of racism is made, facts are treated as if they’re of secondary importance to FEELINGS.

5) It’s okay to discriminate against white Americans: It’s unbelievable that in 2013, we still have race-based discrimination in America and liberals are perfectly fine with it. . . .

6) It’s always the fifties and sixties: Comparing the United States of 2013, when we have a black President of the United States to a time when black Americans couldn’t drink from the same water fountains as whites is so ridiculous that to do so should practically be considered a sign of mental illness. Yet, it happens all the time . . .

7) Past evidence must be ignored: Ironically, saying you have “black friends” is now considered to be something that a racist would say. That says much more about the sort of witch hunt allegations of racism have become in this country than the people who say it. Judge Charles Pickering put his life on the line to prosecute the Grand Dragon of the KKK in Mississippi in the early sixties; yet liberals falsely branded him a racist to stop his nomination to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. George Zimmerman tutored black children and fought to get justice for a black homeless man beaten by police and even voted for Obama, but he was still falsely portrayed as a racist. This can happen only because determining if someone is a racist has become a political tool that is completely disconnected from whether the person in question actually dislikes people because of the color of their skin.

8) Republicans secretly want to do things Democrats used to do: Conservative, moderate, and liberal Democrats were behind slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, segregation, the Tuskegee Experiment, lynchings and every other racist horror inflicted on black Americans in this country. Republicans stood against the Democrats while they were doing all of those terrible things and while we congratulate them on now agreeing with us that they were wrong, it’s disgusting to try to blame Democrat sins on the Republican Party. . . ..

9) Minorities shouldn’t be held to the same standards as whites: . . . If there is one general characteristic of white liberals, it’s their condescending and demeaning attitude toward blacks.” The soft bigotry of low expectations that liberals bring to the table encourages mediocrity, undercuts excellence and generally helps to hold minorities in America back.

10) When a white non-liberal disagrees with a liberal minority, it’s probably because of racism: Republicans absolutely detested Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; so what kind of moron would assume that their intense dislike of Barack Obama must be driven by race? Tea Partiers love black conservatives that agree with them, like Herman Cain and Allen West; so could there be a reason that they detest Barack Obama other than race? Do we really need the Scooby Gang to figure out why a group that’s all about small government, low taxes, and cutting spending would dislike a socialist who’s all about big government, higher taxes and increasing spending? . . .

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Liberals Have Nearly Destroyed The Black Community, It's Time To Return The Favor

Elbert Guillory, an eloquent, conservative black politician, has been a Louisiana State Senator since 2009. In announcing the creation of the Free At Last Pac, a political action committee with the goal of electing black conservatives, Mr. Guillory had this to say:



I concur with everything Mr. Guillory said - and his mission is critical to our nation. The plight of far too many black Americans is an obscenity in 21st century America. And it is a travesty that conservatives have written off the black vote because of the success of the racial grievance industry in playing the race card. If there is one thing conservatives should do over the coming years to help our nation, it is to take the message of conservatism into the black communities. Mr. Guillory is precisely right when he says that libs have "nearly destroyed the black community" and that it is "time to return the favor." Actually, it is far past time.

(H/T Seraphic Secret)

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Stop Calling Me A Nigger

The Tea Party? Defeat them the same way segregation was beaten. “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked. It was just fierce indifference to human life that caused America to say enough is enough. ‘I don’t want to see it and I am not a part of it.’ What the hell! If you have to bomb little kids and send dogs out against human beings, give me a break.”

Charlie Rangel on Immigration, Pope Francis & His Successor, The Daily Beast, 2 Aug. 2013

No, I am not black. I grew up around the military and spent a good part of my adulthood in the most integrated profession in our nation - the U.S. Army Infantry. Racism simply did not exist in the colorblind world where I lived, where blacks were my officers, commanders, NCO's, soldiers and friends. The first I saw of racism and racial politics was when I left the military and happened to have the misfortune to hear an utterly vile speech by Louis Farrakhan. Since then, my eyes have been opened.

While I am neither black nor racist, I am conservative. I fully share the values of the Tea Party groups - to return to Constitutionalism and reign in spending and taxes. Those values are utterly colorblind.

And, with but this exception, I do not use the word "nigger." It is a demeaning word fraught with arrogance and hatred. It has been rightfully driven from acceptability in America. If someone were to call a black man a "nigger" today, I think that a violent response would be justified.

I use the word "nigger" to make a point. I feel every bit as angry and violence prone at being falsely labled a racist as I would believe a black man would feel at being called a "nigger." What Charlie Rangel said in the quote above is every bit as outrageous.

This is not going to go away with rational discussion. These utterly worthless bastards who are making false charges of racism are paying no price, and that has to end. That will only happen when those making the vile and false charges of racism are forced to recant - with public pressure to the extent possible, and violence if that does not work.

Oh, and by the way Charlie, the people you faced in the South in 1955 were Democrats. Bull Connor was on the Democrat National Committee you worthless ass.

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The Far Left & The Disconnect Between Reality & Promises

Several conclusions that I came to a few years ago are that far left always claims the moral high ground for their programs and policies, they always claim to be helping some victimized or powerless group, and nine times out of ten, they are actually putting the screws to the group for their own benefit. The only winners are the far left and a few cronies who play their game.

The penultimate example of this is that of the racial grievance industry and the black community - a community beset by horrendous problems of broken families, violent crime, poverty, and substandard education. The far left does not do a single thing towards addressing these problems. Worse, it is a cause when it comes to education. The far left perpetuates the substandard education of blacks by brazenly placing the interests of moneyed unions over those of inner city blacks. And yet, the far left claims to be the sole guardian of blacks in our nation. Blacks are but one example of this dynamic. Virtually everything the left touches runs on the same dynamic. What led me to revisit these conclusions was an article in the WSJ by Arthur Brooks on how Obama claims to champion the middle class while pursuing policy after policy that accretes power to the government while screwing the middle class and the ever increasing number of poor in this country:

. . . Census Bureau data show that in 2006-11, real annual income for the top 20% (quintile) of Americans fell by about 5% but rose almost 2% in 2010-11—and shows signs of continuing an upswing. For the bottom quintile, income fell by over 11%, and there was no upswing.

In 2011, workers in households earning between $40,000 and $60,000 had a 7.8% unemployment rate. In households earning under $20,000, unemployment was 24.4%. The unemployment for households earning more than $150,000 was 3.2%

In other words, high-income households were at or above full employment. Meanwhile, the lowest-income households looked at an employment landscape resembling the worst years of the Great Depression.

"Growing inequality isn't just morally wrong," Mr. Obama said on July 24 in Illinois. "It's bad economics." That is abundantly true, but not in the way he intended. He meant income inequality. But the real problem—and crisis—is declining opportunity. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has shown that in 1980, 21% of Americans in the bottom income quintile rose to the middle quintile or higher by 1990. Those who started off in the bottom quintile in 1995 had only a 15% chance of becoming middle class in 2005. That is a one-third decline in mobility in under a generation.

The key to increasing opportunity is simple: real jobs for adults and good education for children. The president's speeches disappointed on both counts.

In Tennessee on Tuesday, Mr. Obama said: "A job is a source of pride and dignity—the way you support your family, the proof that you're doing the right thing." Exactly—which is why it is so distressing that work has been collapsing in the past five years, with the poor hardest hit.

In 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that total nonfarm seasonally adjusted employment was 138 million workers. Today, it is fewer than 136 million. Meanwhile, the number of Americans has grown by 12.8 million. In many areas of the country, more than one in five adults who want full-time employment can't find it.

Where are the policies that will actually help Americans at the bottom regain the dignity of real, value-creating jobs? I don't mean the high-skill workers who would benefit from high-tech innovation, biofuels, electric vehicles and other favored industries of the administration, but rather the people left behind.

Again and again, the president offers a higher minimum wage as a solution. Yet as the overwhelming majority of economists have argued for decades, the minimum wage actually harms the poorest and most marginalized workers—those with the most tenuous grip on their jobs. In January, a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research surveyed the most recent studies and concluded: "The evidence still shows that minimum wages pose a tradeoff of higher wages for some against job losses for others."

The story for strivers and entrepreneurs is no better. Scott Shane of Case Western Reserve University has shown that business formation fell by 17.3% between 2007 and 2009. Launching a business is never a walk in the park, especially given the explosion of red tape at all levels of government. While it is still possible for the educated and comfortable, government bureaucracy can crush entrepreneurship entirely for those at the bottom of the income scale. As a pro-poor rule of thumb, I suggest this: If you want to start a landscaping business, all you should need is a lawn mower, not an accountant and a lawyer to help you hack through all the red tape before setting up shop. Imagine if President Obama fought for such business-friendly simplification.

Perhaps the president's proposals on education are better for the poor. Sadly, no. Mr. Obama, on his speaking tour, talked about subsidizing college loans—a policy that largely does relatively little for those at the bottom. . . .

What I find both inexplicable and depressing is the seeming complete inability of conservatives to articulate these realities in an effective manner to the vast majority in our nation who are not of the far left.

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Lemon & Race.

House Democrats under Nancy Pelosi today held a hearing on "Race and Justice" in America. No Republicans were invited. The speakers were limited to race baiters who make their living off the grievance industry. No mention was made of the dysfunction in the black community, unwed mother birth rate over 75%, rampant criminality, substandard education, poverty, joblessness, etc. The entire focus of the hearing was the supposed ever increasing racism in America. And not surprisingly, the attendees came to the collective conclusion that the only way to protect blacks is to elect Democrats to the House.

The racial grievance industry and the Democrat left that is wed to it has, over half a century, proven immensely harmful to our nation - and to the black community, it has been an utter disaster. At this point, these two groups jointly pushing a canard for money and power is beyond merely immoral - it is evil.

I've been talking about the problems of race for years now on this blog. Rare is the person on the left who likewise addresses the problems head on. But hats off to CNN's Don Lemon who has indeed waded into the mud with brutal honesty:



While I appreciate the comments, the canard that the right only brings up the problems of the black community when "they want to stick it to the black community" is just off the charts ridiculous. One, every time someone on the right with a public voice brings it up, they are met with a full scale attack from the racial grievance industry. Two, in the most recent instance, the right has brought it up in response to the race hustlers' calls for the lynching of George Zimmerman. That was not to "stick it" to the black community, it was to finally start pointing out that the black community is being tremendously ill used. And that is a message that needs to be shouted from the rooftops every day.

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Has President Obama Deepened The Racial Divide In America?

Rob Miller at the Watcher's Council invited me to contribute to the Council's discussion on the question of whether "President Obama has deepened the racial divide." My response is below:

Historically, nothing has more poisoned our society than racism and the "racial divide" caused thereby. Today, half the equation - white racism - no longer prevails in society. But the "racial divide" is still deep. It is a divide carefully tended by the far left. For some of the blacks who have bought into it, there is money and power. There are the race baiters like Al Sharpton and Jessee Jackson. There are the tenured professorships at every university in ethnic studies programs that teach nothing but racial grievance. And there are the far left politician, every one of them of whatever color, including President Obama. They depend on keeping that racial divide wide since it is, for them, not merely a route to political power, but a foundational element of it.

Blacks, starting with Goldwater's incredibly ill advised opposition to the Civil Rights Act, have been convinced that their interests lay with the left. And blacks have ever since proven to be a monolithic voting block like none ever before seen in our nation. Over 90% of every black vote since the mid-60's has gone for Democrats. If the left ever loses that block of votes, they will be in deep, deep electoral trouble.

So is it any surprise at all that President Obama has tried to poison the well of race relations at every turn? No administration in history has ever played the race card like the Obama administration. Want to prevent voter fraud - you're racist. Oppose Obama's spending - you're a neo-confederate "tea bagger." Oppose Obamacare - you might as well be standing next to Bull Connor in Selma setting the dogs loose on MLK.

When Obama had a chance to actually address the problems in the black community a few days ago, he told us that Trayvon Martin was Baracky Jr. He told us how bad it was, based on his personal experience, to be a black man in America and be 'profiled' because of his skin color. Lest there be any question that he was saying that racism - as opposed to rationality about black violence and criminality - was the cause, Obama expounded further. As to dysfunction in the black community - the violence, single mothers, cyclical poverty, substandard education - Obama told us that those things must be put in "historical context."

There is no question that, in the short run, Obama has worsened race relations in our nation. But I would submit that, in the end, the efforts of him and his administration is only adding straws to a proverbial camel's back. At some point, it will break - to the immense benefit of our nation and the black community in particular. It has to because all the imperatives that gave rise to the black Civil Rights movement have flipped.

In the 1960's, blacks were the subject of white racism. In 2013, racism has been wholly driven from mainstream society. Our society has revolutionized, and done so in only three generations, like no other in recorded history. To the extent racism exists today, it is on the margins. When you see a woman at one of race hustler Al Sharpton's rallies hold up a sign that says "Racism's stll alive. They Just Be Hiding It," that tells you all you need to know about the absence of racism in mainstream society.

Two, the moral high ground no longer rests with blacks. The most significant problems besetting black society - criminality, violence, breakdown of the family with three out of every four black children born to single mothers - those are problems internal to black society. They are not caused by white racism. Moreover, to the extent that the government contributes to the problems of the black community, it is ultimately because, one, addressing the problems of black society honestly would break the monolithic voting block on which the left relies, and in the case of education, would mean taking on teachers unions that provide the single greatest source of funding for the Democrats. That still, today, so many blacks refuse to acknowledge this is surreal. The real travesty of all this is that Republicans, despite the urging of such luminaries as Thomas Sowell, have not made any concerted effort to point out these truths to the black community and seek their votes.

Lastly, since whites make up the majority of society, the success of the racial grievance industry ultimately rests on the existence of white guilt. But with racism no longer endemic to society, white guilt is fast fading. The race card is becoming ever less effective, and at some point, the constant claim that anything the left doesn't like is motivated by conservative's racism is not merely going to be ineffective, it is going to engender outright anger.

We are inexorably moving to the day when blacks stop their monolithic support of the far left. That will mean that they have joined American society and are no longer claiming to be perpetual victims of it. It will be the day the racial divide ends - and President Obama, with his administration's overuse of the race card, will have, wholly unintentionally, done his part to end it.

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