Systematic Racism and Genocide against the African American Community: Does It Really Exist? (Part One)

July 7, 2020

I think it is safe to say: not too many people would argue that at one time in our history racism was a serious problem. In the 1960s this black eye on our heritage finally began to heal.

Although the government passed anti-discrimination legislation and the Affirmative Action Program, most of the progress that has been achieved over the years has come from venues where it was necessary, or even required, for black people and white people to interact and sometimes work together. This interaction, over time, allowed people to get to know one another and become friendly. It’s been my experience, more times than not, that if you put two guys together and tell them to do a job, those two guys will work together to get the job done.

This progress didn’t happen overnight, and it is still going on today. It has taken decades and multiple generations for these two communities to reach a point where there is a level of trust between them. This movement towards reconciliation and washing away the negative feelings between the two races has taken place, in large part, in several different venues.

One of these venues was the military. I normally try not to write about myself in these posts, but in this particular instance I’m going to make an exception because it’s relevant.

In my youth, which was quite a long time ago, I spent four years in the US military. From the time I was in bootcamp up to and including the two years I spent at sea, I lived and worked with black Americans. Most of these guys were tough inner-city kids from Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, LA, and other big cities throughout the country. Having grown up in the country, being around black people was a new experience for me. 

As I said most of these guys came from the inner city. They were kids who grew up in tough neighborhoods. Many of these guys joined the military to get out of the inner city and also to escape poverty. Of these, some decided to make the military their career rather than return home to the city.

The military had a lot to offer young inner-city kids—especially those who might not have finished high school. The military would teach you a trade that you would use while in the service. You could be trained to be an electrician or a plumber, or if you had the aptitude, a jet mechanic. There was training for other skills as well. The idea was to learn a skill and get experience on the job and take that training back into civilian life if you chose to leave the military when your time was up.

I got to be really good friends with a lot of these guys. We lived together, we worked together, we went out drinking together, and we even got high together. (Ah, the good ole days.) After a while the fact that they were black ceased to be an issue. We were shipmates and we became pretty good friends and that was that. This happened rather quickly because we were together most of the time and we got to know each other pretty well. By the way, my situation was not unique. There were other white guys who worked with us who felt the same way. As I said above, this was all the result of constantly being in each other’s company.

From my experience, race was not a factor in the military, at least from the military’s perspective. There were individuals who still had issues with race, but as far as the military was concerned, race was a non-issue. The military was the great equalizer.

For example, if you were up for a promotion in rank and had enough time in your current rank, you were eligible to test for the next rank. It didn’t matter what race you were; if you scored high enough on that exam you were promoted. This point was even more valid if you chose to make the military your career. 

Another factor that helped to mitigate racism in this country and was directly related to the military was the GI Bill. At the time, assuming you received an honorable discharge, for every year of service you completed you were entitled to one year of GI Bill education benefits. At the time when I left the military, the government was offering a bonus year. (I never did find out what the criteria was for receiving that extra year, but I didn’t argue with it.)  

I therefore left the military with sixty months of education benefits. These benefits came in the form of a monthly check I received as long as I was enrolled in school. The monthly check not only covered my tuition, but there was also enough left over to put toward my living expenses. I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree and have benefits left over to go on to graduate school.

The fact that I was able to attend college and graduate with a degree was not a benefit that was available to white people only. There were no restrictions with regard to race. The only criteria that I was aware of was that you had to have left the military with an honorable discharge. The military was color blind.

Over the years, this policy allowed hundreds of thousands of black men and women who served their country honorably the opportunity to attend college and graduate with the degree of their choice, courtesy of the US government. This program made college a reality for many who otherwise would not have had the resources to enroll. It was a life-changer for many veterans, both black and white.

In my opinion, this program, more than any other, helped to mitigate the effects of racism in America. I say this because it’s much easier for an educated person, black or white, to compete in our competitive job market, than it is for someone who is uneducated.

One more point about education in America and I’ll move on. Education is the key that unlocks all the doors. It is unfortunate that the education that I received in the small rural school I attended was by far superior to that which was available to those in the inner city. It is the local governments of these cities that are responsible for running their public schools and providing a proper education for the children of their city. Like any other business, responsibility for success or failure starts at the top. Just exactly where is the top? Is it the top of the school administration or is it the top of the political administration, i.e. the mayors and the city council members? Where does the buck stop? After fifty years of mostly Democrat administrations I think it’s safe to say that the political administrations should bear most of the blame. It’s not for lack of money. School systems like those in NYC receive billions in federal, state, and local funding every year. Is it being used efficiently or is it being squandered? We don’t have the answer to that. What we do have are the results—which are not exactly stellar.

In an article written by Cynthia Hundley, PhD in May 2013, she described inner-city schools as inadequate in almost every way imaginable. From teachers with credentials in one subject teaching classes in another subject, to inadequate and outdated textbooks and older generation computers and science equipment, these students are short-changed at almost every turn. According to her, insufficient supplies, run-down school buildings, and disgusting restrooms are the norm in inner-city schools. This was just a quick overview of the poor conditions in our inner-city schools. I could go on but the point has been made. If you want children to learn it is necessary, at a minimum, to put them in an environment that is conducive to learning. Here again, they have billions to spend. Where does it go? 

Over the years I have heard it reported on more than one occasion that children graduating from inner-city schools are unable to read at high school level and that they are also unable to do fifth-grade math. How is it possible that a child can spend twelve years in public school and be unable to do math at a minimum level of the ninth grade? 

What makes this failure of the local city government even more egregious is that instead of fixing the problem, you have elected public officials, like Bill DeBlasio, painting Black Lives Matter signs on 5th Avenue. The educational needs of black lives also matter and need to be addressed or these problems of inequality will never be solved.

WMAR-2 News story, Baltimore, May 7, 2018

Another venue that has helped to lessen systemic racism of the past is young people attending college. There are approximately 5,300 colleges and universities in the US. These institutions of higher learning are filled with black people, white people, Asians, and people from any other background who have a desire to attend college. These young people are intermingling and, by doing so, can’t help but to get to know one another. Sometimes they take the same classes, study together, do projects together, whatever. The fact is that these people of different races get to know one another. I’m not saying that these relationships are all going to become lifelong friendships, although I’m sure that some of that does take place. Just the fact of being exposed to each other on a regular basis is enough to build at least a modicum of trust between people. Sometimes that’s all it takes. 

There is one other venue that I believe has helped to eliminate systemic racism from the US and that is the workplace. Regardless of whether you work in an office, retail, construction, or a restaurant, chances are you work with people from other races. Again, the idea is that when you work with someone you get to know them and after a while barriers seem to disappear. You become friendly, maybe even go out after work as a group. Who knows? The idea that you are all working for the betterment of the same company should be something that brings you together. The idea that if the company does well the employees will also do well is a reason for everyone to pull together. I guess one could call that “company spirit.” Here again, this is another venue where racial issues have been mitigated. 

There is a narrative being circulated by the radical left. It is that black Americans are unable to be successful in their chosen careers because of systemic racism. Anyone who cares to take the time to look into this issue would find that over the last fifty years, millions of black Americans have enjoyed successful careers in their chosen fields.

For example, over the last fifty years there have been tens of thousands, if not more, of successful black attorneys in this country. Many of these lawyers make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. I see high-profile black attorneys being interviewed on news programs almost every night. They are arguing either for or against one issue or another. These people are not being asked to appear on these programs because of their color. They are there because they are competent in their profession and highly respected. 

These people all attended law school and passed the bar exam, which is no easy task. Some had to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay their tuition while others received scholarships. Whatever path they took it was required of them to do the work and put in the hours necessary to be successful. There was no free ride as far as the work was concerned. They weren’t just handed a degree for free and told to go out and practice law. They had to work hard for it, and they continue to work hard during their careers. That’s why they are successful. They invested the time, worked hard, and they are now being rewarded.

Some African American attorneys have risen to the pinnacle of their profession. Three such attorneys immediately come to mind. First, after attending Harvard Law School, Barack Obama became a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University. Later, he went into politics and became a US Senator. As we all know he eventually became the 44th president of the United States.

Two other African American attorneys, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, became justices of the Supreme Court. There is no higher honor that one can attain in the legal profession than to become a justice of the Supreme Court.

In addition to the three mentioned above there are other black attorneys that have become Federal District Court Judges and Federal Appeals Court Judges. There are also many black judges at the state level. All of these judges are well-respected and at the top of their profession.

Was there racism in this country when these lawyers were young? Yes, there was. Are there still vestiges of it today? I would have to say yes. But given the success of these individuals it is difficult to understand how anyone could argue that systemic racism is a major issue in this country.

In addition to the tens of thousands or more of black attorneys there are also thousands upon thousands of black physicians in this country. Some, such as Dr. Ben Carson, have reached the status of being world-renowned in his area of medicine. It has been said that Dr. Carson was the best pediatric neurosurgeon in the world. That’s no small endorsement. How many of us can say that we were the best in the world at anything? 

There are other African American physicians who have also risen to the top of their profession. In addition to excelling in their specific areas of medicine, they have gone on to become Presidents and CEOs of large medical facilities such as hospitals and medical research labs. Running a business concern as large and as complex as a hospital is no easy task. It’s something that most people are not well-suited for. These doctors were not only highly competent as physicians, they were able to switch careers and become successful business administrators. Here again, I see no systemic racism that inhibited any of these very talented physicians from becoming successful in their professional lives.

Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008

There also seems to be no systemic racism in fields of professional sports or in the entertainment industry. In the area of professional sports, more than in any other, the only relevant criteria that is important as to whether or not you get hired is your performance on the field of play. Here are a couple of examples. If you’re six foot ten inches tall and you score 50 points per game and get fifteen rebounds per game, you’re going to get hired. Race has nothing to do with it. If baseball is your game and your batting average is .350 and you hit fifty homeruns per year and you are able to steal 100 bases per year you’re going to get hired. The only other criteria that I am aware of that might impact your ability to get hired is whether you are able to put fans in the stands. Here again, race has nothing to do with it. I could continue on with further examples but I think my point has been made.

In the entertainment industry the same basic criteria apply. How well do you perform on stage, and how many CDs can you sell? If your performing art is acting, on stage or in the movies, how many tickets will be sold to see your performance? “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.” The color of one’s skin has nothing to do with it. 

Over the last sixty years or more, there have been tens of thousands of black athletes and black entertainers who have become multi-millionaires by being really talented, either in their specific area of entertainment or in their chosen professional sport. As a matter of fact, since Jackie Robinson made it to the big leagues in 1947, black athletes have excelled in almost every professional sport. The issue of race evaporated years ago in these two industries. The only relevant question as to whether a person can make it in the big leagues is whether he or she can perform at a high enough level to be successful. The same questions apply in the entertainment industry. Are you talented enough and can you sell enough CDs or movie tickets to be financially successful? Those are the only relevant questions, as it should be.

In addition to all the black professionals noted above there have also been black CPAs and engineers, black scientists and medical researchers, as well as black pharmacists and college professors. There have also been black US congressmen and senators and many black legislators at the state level. Those elected have been elected by popular vote. How is this possible in a system that is racist? The short answer and the honest answer is that it is not.

If you were to add up all of the African Americans in this country who have embarked on successful careers in their respective fields, that number would pale when compared to the many black Americans who have decided to invest in their own business. To the best of my knowledge there are no restrictions or any organized effort to prevent black Americans from opening their own business. There is also no limit as to the amount of money that a black entrepreneur can make. Like any other person one needs only the money to invest and the guts to take the risk. That’s it.

The three most successful black entrepreneurs that I am aware of are Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), Michael Jordan, former NBA all-star, and Oprah Winfrey, former actress and talk show host. Mr. Johnson, after selling BET to Viacom for $3B, is now reportedly worth about $600M. Michael Jordan’s current net worth is estimated to be $1.7B. The estimated net worth of Oprah Winfrey is reported to be $2.7B. I am fairly confident when I say that Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey made most of their money after retiring from their respective careers.

This tells me that in addition to being outstanding professionals in their fields, they have also become very successful investors. The numbers don’t lie. How are African Americans able to become billionaires in an atmosphere of systemic racism? If this systemic racism was real, how would these very talented investors be able to accomplish all that they have? 

In addition to the false premise that America is systemically racist, another false narrative is also being spread by BLM. It is that a genocide is being carried out against the African American community. First of all, if a genocide is being carried out against the black community, it is not being carried out by white people. I’ve written about this subject before in a prior post. The fact is that between 1980 and present day over 90% of all black people that have been murdered in the US have been murdered by other black Americans. This phenomenon is also true in the white community. Most of the white people that have been murdered in the US have been murdered by other white people.

In part one of this post I discussed several reasons why systemic racism has all but disappeared from our country. Although vestiges of this problem still remain in our society, it has basically become a non-issue.

I also made mention of several different vocations where millions of African Americans have enjoyed very successful careers in America. In my opinion this success would not have been possible in a racist society.

Part two will deal with the real motives behind the Antifa and BLM “protests.” They are not what the media has led you to believe.