American structural racism takes a number of forms, some of them quite subtle. So, apparently, does gratitude.
The lies have been around for half a century, wafting through America’s elite institutions until, in the last few years, they began to coagulate into an orthodoxy—a process that has reached its culmination in just the last few weeks.
Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) says America invented slavery. CNN’s Don Lemon says: “If you grew up in America, you came out of American soil, considering the history of this country . . . how can you not be racist?” The New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning “1619 Project” says that America was founded on slavery and racism.
Lies—outrageous lies. America, uniquely among all nations, was founded on freedom. Like virtually all other nations up to that time, it inherited the stain of slavery. Our Founders recognized this contradiction. Three generations later, in an unprecedented war, 400,000 white soldiers died fighting to free black slaves. But now it’s racist to say so.
Racist to say that the first European settlers in North America didn’t introduce slavery to the New World, because the practice of enslaving members of defeated tribes was already common among American Indians.
Racist to say that white Americans didn’t enslave blacks, because American slaveholders bought blacks who’d already been enslaved back in Africa by other blacks.
Racist to say that Africans also held over a million white European slaves between the years 1500 and 1800.
Racist to say that slavery, long vanished in America, still exists in Africa.
Racist to say that while America has a history of slavery and a legacy of racial prejudice, we’ve overcome it in our institutions.
Racist to say that black Americans today enjoy an unprecedented degree of prosperity and freedom.
Racist to point out that we elected a black president—twice.
Corporate Cowardice
Yes, some whites still dislike blacks. Some blacks dislike whites. But not many. When people like Al Sharpton and the leaders of Black Lives Matter insist that racism remains a major aspect of American life and blame current problems on past injustices, they’re selling lies.
Do we see spokespeople for other races doing this? Do we even see other races, by and large, havingspokespeople?
When I was growing up in New York, I had a lot of Jewish friends, and they’d all lost relatives in the Holocaust. They mourned their losses. They said, “Never again.” But they didn’t try to leverage their tragedy to win societal brownie points or to accuse “all gentiles” of anti-Semitism.
After the Vietnam War, “boat people” came to America. Some of them had fought Communism alongside U.S. troops; all had suffered reversals owing to the war. When they came to America, many couldn’t speak English. But they didn’t hold protests. They didn’t riot. They found jobs or started small businesses. They worked hard and encouraged their kids to study. And next thing you knew, those kids were winning national spelling bees.
And their fellow Americans cheered them. Far more than the citizens of many other countries, including the Nordic lands that are celebrated by the Left as moral lodestars, Americans are ready to embrace as fellow Americans any foreigners who enter their country legally, learn the language, work...
