The Ten Things You Can't Say in America [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

“Larry Elder, is there a connection between your beliefs and the house and the white woman you have waiting for you in the hills?”

A black man asked me that during a debate over whether Hollywood conspires to shut out blacks. I called the notion paranoid and was greeted with that rather charming question.

Unfortunately, the questioner was typical. Many American blacks falsely and unfairly accuse whites for black America’s “plight.” Bad schools? White racism. Crime? White racism. Under-performance on standardized tests? Racist or “culturally biased” tests. Can’t get a loan for a home or a new business? Racist lending officers, who would rather reject profit than give a black man a loan. Disproportionately high arrest rates? Racial profiling by racist cops.

To put it more bluntly, many blacks simply despise whites. They assume white bigotry and hostility toward blacks, and feel—against all evidence—that “white racism” remains an intense and formidable obstacle. What nonsense. So convinced that white racism stops black progress, many blacks not only ignore obvious signs of progress, but viciously attack anyone—especially someone black—who dares challenge the “they’re-out-to-get-us” point of view. To hold the view—as I do—that racism no longer represents a serious threat to black upward mobility, to feel confident and positive about “race relations” in America—that makes me a “sellout.” Thus, the questioner’s attack, not on my views, philosophy, or ideology, but on me personally.

I take three positions, earning the wrath of blacks. First, I repudiate the “Johnnie Cochran doctrine.” Recall that during the O. J. Simpson trial, defense attorney Cochran voiced the mantra of many “black leaders” when he said, “Race plays a part of everything in America.” Second, I oppose race- and gender-based affirmative action. And, third, I believe O. J. Simpson butchered two innocent human beings. For this, “my people” have called me the following:

Oreo. Uncle Tom. Boot-licking Uncle Tom. Straight-up Uncle Tom. Judas. Boy. Bug-eyed. Foot-shuffling. Sugarcane Negro. Handkerchief head. Trojan Horse. Anti-black. Pro-white. Remus. Sambo. Sambo-Tom. The Anti-Christ. Clarence Thomas supporter. Sniveling weasel. Evil. Ass-kisser. Coconut. Wannabe white. Nickering nabob of negativity. And this is just an abbreviated list.

How dare I suggest that the fate of blacks is, well, in the hands of blacks!

Many blacks, encouraged by the so-called “black leadership,” view life starkly. Us against them. Black versus white. Rich versus poor. Key is the following assumption: that whites encourage, endorse, perpetuate, welcome, are happy about, and take pride in the oppression of blacks. Challenge the traditional white-mandone-me-wrong-and-continues-to-do-so mentality, and some blacks go absolutely crazy.

What about black Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell’s over-the-top defense of affirmative action? “Everybody who is a person of color in this country has benefited from affirmative action. There’s not been anybody who has gotten into college on their own, nobody who’s gotten a job on their own, no one who’s prospered as a businessman or businesswoman on their own without affirmative action.”2

Hysterical. How else to describe how some blacks reacted to the California debate on affirmative action? Students at a local college there, Cal State Northridge, decided to host a debate over Proposition 209, a ballot initiative to exclude race and gender as a consideration in public hiring, public contracting, and admissions into state colleges and universities. For the pro-affirmative-action side, they selected a black veteran civil rights activist in Los Angeles. To defend the anti-affirmative-action position, they invited … David Duke! That’s right. David Duke. See, anyone opposing affirmative action therefore supports racism, Jim Crow, lynchings, hangings, police brutality, and the Klan. Why, if the anti-affirmative-action folks could, they would reenact slavery, take away the women’s vote, and deregulate cable. Quick, somebody stop them! Is this not racist?

Influential black congresswoman Maxine Waters, former head of the Black Congressional Caucus, once called President George Bush “racist.”3 Why? He differed with her on policy. That’s enough. And Waters routinely refers to Republicans as “the enemy.” Blatant bigotry against whites, for many blacks, resembles a badge of honor. Many blacks feel they can, with impunity, make utterly racist statements.

Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign manager, a black woman named Donna Brazile, once talked about the importance of defeating the Republicans. We must, she said, defeat the “white boys.” “White boys,” she said, has nothing to do with “gender or race, it’s an attitude. A white boy attitude is ‘I must exclude, denigrate, and leave behind.’ They don’t see it or think about it. It’s a culture.”4 A “white boy attitude”? She also attacked black Republicans General Colin Powell and Oklahoma congressman J. C. Watts: “The Republicans bring out Colin Powell and J. C. Watts because they have no program, no policy. They play that game because they have no other game. They have no love and no joy. They’d rather take pictures with black children than feed them.”5

Colin Powell, perhaps the most respected American public figure, would “rather take pictures with black children than feed them”? Colin Powell, who spends considerable time and energy in promoting volunteerism, would “rather take pictures with black children than feed them”? Powell, mind you, supports affirmative action, favors gun control legislation, once called the Newt Gingrich Republican “Contract with America” too harsh, and is pro-choice. But he has “no love and no joy.” Hey, a statement like that gets a “white boy” campaign manager canned. But Ms. Brazile remains in charge, with virtually no one making an issue out of her blatantly bigoted statements.

Influential black director Spike Lee made a movie, Jungle Fever, about an interracial black-white romance. Lee, however, publicly stated his contempt for interracial relationships. In an October 1992 Esquire interview, Lee said, “I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street.” Charming.

In the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X, Lee depicts an actual incident where a white teenager approaches the angry activist. “Excuse me, Mr. X. Hi, I’ve read some of your speeches, and I honestly believe that a lot of what you have to say is true, and I’m a good person, in spite of what my ancestors did, and I just, I wanted to ask you, what can a white person like myself who isn’t prejudiced, what can I do to help you … further your cause?” she asks plaintively. He stares sternly and replies, “Nothing.”

When I gave a speech at a local high school, the front row featured several young black men wearing Malcolm X T-shirts. The picture on the T-shirts was that of “Malcolm-as-firebrand,”...