Real Solutions or Virtue Signaling?

“What happened to White People in America?” was in the subject line of an email I received from a friend recently.  The email was a meme illustrating how white men have just about disappeared from television commercials in this country.

Those who read my blog know I’m a stickler for accuracy and fact checking; but I have better things to do with my time than try to verify how many black actors versus white actors are appearing in T.V. commercials.  But irrespective of the apocryphal meme, one would have to be blind not to notice the spate of commercials featuring interracial couples, mixed race siblings, or those “all-American” families with black dads, white moms, mixed kids, and an Asian looking grandparent seen laughing around a holiday dinner table.

Yes, white men still appear in commercials, but anecdotally speaking, we don’t see them hawking muscle cars anymore, instead we see aging celebrities pushing pain medications (Pat Boone) reverse mortgages (Tom Selleck) or Medicare Plans (William Shatner).

Meanwhile, the meme was highly political suggesting that a conspiracy may be at work, or perhaps that something even more nefarious was afoot, such as “Black Privilege” taking over the culture.  Well, the black privilege comment was a bit extreme and that’s where I drew the credibility line with the author.  But line or no, there’s little doubt the woke culture has influenced what we see and hear on T.V.  So, whether the matter is about the percentage of blacks appearing in T.V. commercials or the far more serious racial issue of how the woke media covers the Black Lives Matter movement, each ducks the real issue of race in America.

Yes, systemic racism once existed in this country.  Even the Founders acknowledged that slavery violated the ideals of the American Revolution.  However, their commitment to the principles of limited government, private property rights, and intersectional harmony prevented them from making a bold move of abolishing that “peculiar institution.”  And lest we forget, had the various states’ representatives attending the Constitutional Congress insisted on eliminating slavery before ratification there would never have been a constitution much less a Union.

The Founders wisely left the matter for future generations to address, which is exactly what occurred beginning with the Civil War in 1861, which in turn led to the enactment of 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments and eventually to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights and the 1965 Voting Rights Acts.  In fact, no country on earth has done more to eliminate systemic racism than the United States of America.

Racism, bias, and bigotry still exist in this country – as they do in every society on earth!  But allow me to ask rhetorically, if this is a racist nation why is it that more people emigrate to the United States than every other nation on earth combined?  And here’s a news flash for the woke; people don’t immigrate to racist nations!

Three requirements are needed for a viable democracy – equal rights, equal opportunities, and equal responsibilities.  Unfortunately, too much racial discussion focuses on rights & opportunities and fails to address the matter of responsibilities.

Every American, whether white, black, brown, or plaid has the responsibility to respect and obey the laws of the land, respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others, and meaningfully participate in their local community.  And not coincidentally, it’s to the degree these responsibilities are ignored that society experiences problems such as crime, poverty, homelessness, broken homes & failing schools.

The woke have chosen to ignore U.S. Census Bureau and FBI statistics illustrating how black men comprise just 6% of the population yet commit nearly 50% of all homicides, or that the median household income for Asian-American families is more than twice that of black families, while the black high school dropout rate is three times higher than that of those same Asian-Americans.  There are reasons for these disparities, but for some reason, the left refuses to investigate.  So, perhaps they’re not really interested in the answers.

As a white man I have no concept of the hardships black people face every day; and I certainly wouldn’t want to trade places.  But that’s not the issue – the issue is ascertaining why blacks earn less money, are not represented equally in the “professions,” have higher high school dropout rates, lower college participation rates and commit a greater percentage of violent crimes than any other demographic in America.  These unenviable statistics cannot simply be chalked up to racism—there must be an existential reason.

I’m a thinking individual, I read, I get my facts, and then I form my opinions.  And I believe that until the administration, the media, and the teachers’ unions examine the reasons, i.e., the root causes of why the percentage of black children born into single family homes (70%) is nearly double that of every other American demographic, they will never address the racial inequities they claim to care about.

It may be a bitter pill for the left to swallow, but the matter of single parent homes can be linked to every aspect of crime, education, and income; begging the question, “Is the left serious about addressing the real issues of race in America, or are they just interested in virtue signaling?”

Quote of the day: “We must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker.  It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”—Ronald Reagan