Sins of the father

Imagine if you will.  Cops show up at your job and arrest you because your great grandfather murdered a man.  He's dead now so he can't be prosecuted for the crime, but you are his great granddaughter so the law says you have pay for his crime.  You're sentenced to death and duly executed.

Does that seem fair to you?  You didn't do anything wrong but you're still being held accountable for it.  It's still somehow your fault because he was once in your family.

Imagine now.  A black man robs a liquor store and is sent to prison for 10 years.  He gets cancer and dies with 8 years of his sentence remaining.  Cops arrest his son and send him to prison to finish out his father's sentence. His father's dead and can't finish the time but the crime still needs justice so his son has to pay for it.  The son spends 8 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Is that fair?  The son didn't rob anyone but he's still held accountable for it because his father did.  Would you want that to happen to you?  No?

Every time you demand reparations for slavery, you're demanding justice from someone who didn't do anything wrong to you for something that didn't even happen to you.  All the racist diatribes, all the cries of white privilege and oppression in the world doesn't change that.  You still don't deserve reparations for something that didn't happen to you personally from someone who personally did nothing wrong to you.

Can you imagine what life would be like if everyone could be tried and jailed for things their ancestors did hundreds of years ago?  EVERYONE would be in jail.  Even the judge.

To hold the son accountable for the sins of his father is as stupid as arresting someone for a crime they didn't commit.  It's no different and until we recognize that, we're never moving on because guess what.  EVERYONE HAS ANCESTORS WHO DID SOMETHING WRONG.  Doesn't matter your color or where you're from.  One of your ancestors is guaranteed to have committed a crime at some point in your family tree.  Do you personally want to be responsible for every infraction perpetrated by someone else?

Don't forget about slavery.  Don't stop fighting for equality.  Don't forget about the past because it's important to learn the lessons the mistakes in the past taught us, but don't hold people to the fire for shit they didn't do unless you want the same in return.

There's a lot of black people in prison who did some really bad stuff.  Imagine if we made their children pay damages to their victims.  Black people would riot because they'd think that's unfair.  Well, it's unfair to ask white people to pay you for slavery.  No white person alive today is guilty of owning slaves.

It's ridiculous to cry racism when someone says to get over slavery.  You need to because it's over and it never happened to you and you need to be working on fixing what's wrong in the present rather than whining about a past that can't be changed.  Blaming slavery for all your ills is as stupid as blaming white people or immigrants.  It's just an excuse made by people who've been taught for generations that they're skin is why there's no point in trying to make anything of themselves.  You're not still in the ghetto because the evil white man won't let you move.  Fair housing act.  You're in the ghetto because you haven't moved yet.

Let's take a moment and be honest about what you're really asking.  It's not about justice.  It's revenge.  Generations of black kids have been taught all their lives that the white man is evil and to hate the white man.  Even when the white man has made progress in being more racially tolerant, it isn't enough.  Things ARE better now.  We're desegregated.  We have laws on the books that prohibit discrimination.  Blacks are freer now than they ever were and whites are more socially conscious of how they treat people of color.  It's white liberals who are leading the crusade for equality.  But it's not enough.  It will never be enough until blacks have made white people their slaves or they've whiped white people off the earth.

And that's the truth.  White people may think it's about equality, but we know better.  We know it's hatred.

Hatred for something that happened centuries ago.  Hatred for perceived injustices because we never acknowledge that maybe we did something wrong and that we determine most of what happens in our lives.  It's always someone else's fault.

Well, sweeties.  You are more of a minority than you think.  The rest of the world isn't out to avenge their ancestors.  Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans... Countless peoples who faced discrimination at one point in history.  They put their big kid panties on and built themselves a good life regardless.  Jews were rounded up and systematically slaughtered.  They still managed to be successful.  Mexicans know Texas used to be part of Mexico.  They aren't still bitching about it.  They're too busy working.  Japanese sent to internment camps in World War II came out and opened businesses.  Native Americans massacred and shoved into reservations still built lives for themselves.

It's not about getting even for the past.  It's about succeeding despite the past.  That's how you win against oppression.  You rise despite what anybody says.  You don't blame others or whine about how left out you feel at the Oscars.  You build your own shit.  Everybody does that except you.

Black folks, act a fool if you want to but you're not going to achieve anything by holding on to the past and blaming everything on it and you're never going to be paid for slavery.

Because it's over now.  You're free.  Now stop wasting your freedom.

The importance of spanking

You will never convince someone who holds a grudge against their parents that spanking in a calm and nonviolent way is not child abuse.  That spanking in a calm and nonviolent way in conjunction with a calm and nonviolent discussion of why you're being spanked is a vital tool of parenting.

We are a nation of wusses and our misbehaving hellions running amok bears that out.

30 years ago, kids weren't saints but open aggression wasn't the norm.  Prior to the 1960s, it was unheard of.  Why?  Parents used to discipline their children and we were better for it.

Not like today when even talking loudly to your child when they're throwing a tantrum can get you arrested for child abuse.  The problem we have today is that we've become so pussified that we don't know the difference between discipline and abuse anymore.  All those after school specials painting horrible pictures of parents going too far have traumatized us.

I'm not advocating child abuse.  I'm not saying it's ok to beat your kids.  I'm not saying time out is entirely pointless and I'm glad we have laws to protect children from people who do go too far.  I'm simply saying that spanking has a gotten an unnecessary bad rap.  I'm saying that when done out of love, a few light taps with the hand on the backside isn't criminal.

What's criminal is not bothering to discipline your kids because you're afraid it might be misconstrued as abuse.  It's criminal to think your children learn anything from a few minutes staring at a wall.

Because they don't.  Even when you tell them why you're making them stare at a wall, it doesn't teach them anything.  Why?  Because no one fears a wall.  There has to be bad consequences for bad behavior or you learn nothing from doing it.

Ah, you say.  It's wrong to teach children respect by intimidation and fear.  It only causes them to lash out and be more aggressive.  Fear is child abuse.  That's what you're saying.

And in some ways, you can be right.  Terrorizing your children doesn't teach them anything either,  but in order to teach right from wrong, you have to program behavior.  That means rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior.  Punishment only works when the child finds being punished unfavorable.  When they don't like it.  What do we feel when we don't like something?  Fear of it and a healthy fear of bad things is a good thing, a defense mechanism hard wired into our DNA.  It teaches us to avoid bad things and protect ourselves.

There's nothing wrong with our children not wanting to be punished.  That's the point of punishing them.  So they don't do the things that get them punished.

Spanking is quick and it's effective when done in conjunction with an explanation.  It's been effective for centuries.

Look, I know not everyone feels comfortable with spanking.  Not everyone trusts themselves to know when to stop, but don't criticise the ones who do.  Don't condemn parents who love their children enough to spank them when they do wrong.

The knock out game?  Kids do that.  Illegal pool parties that result in police officers being assaulted by teens.  Why do you think we need police officers in schools?  The fact that so many kids do drugs, have sex or commit crimes is proof we are failing our children.

Because we're scared to discipline them.

Pity the future.

Beyoncé's "statement"

Here we go again.  White people are evil!  Run for your lives!  Aaaah!

So pop diva Beyonce used to be a pretty good artist.  Then she went all ghetto and lost a lot of fans who enjoy more inclusive mainstream pop. By that I mean people who aren't black.  They stopped listening to her new ghetto stuff.  Not because she embraced her blackness like black racists think, but because the music stopped being good.

See, ghetto music is designed for only ghetto-ites to enjoy.  It's degrading music about degrading things that the ghetto subculture embrace as being inherently black.  Promiscuity, getting drunk, selling or doing drugs, getting rich and killing cops.  Pretty much all modern hip hop music is degrading, brain cell killing drivel and that so many black youth have been brainwashed into thinking that the things in modern hip hop are part of their heritage instead of detritus that holds them back is deeply disturbing to anyone with a brain.

Mainstream radio doesn't play Beyoncé's new stuff for a reason.  It's not marketable to non black audiences. When Beyonce went down the ghetto trash road, she lost her fans who had better taste.

She needed relevance to get them back.  She has concert tickets to sell.  She needs publicity to do that.  She needed to get people talking about her so she can make money.  So she did that at the Super Bowl.

With a ridiculously black power white people are evil halftime show.  A lot of people were offended at the blatant racism and yes, if you weren't black, you were supposed to feel uncomfortable by it.  Most black folks are super excited that Bey put whitey in their place and are up in arms at the thought that anyone would be offended.  Because black people can be racist towards others while condemning racism towards themselves.  And people who think that are hypocrites.

But the show was more about putting whitey in their place then about empowering blacks and that's racist regardless of what Beyoncé's black fans think.

I wouldn't mind "Formation", her new song, if it was a positive message.  There's nothing wrong with addressing social issues, but only if a) you're honest and b) you're tasteful about it.  Because it's music, Bey.  Kids are watching you.  What did they see?  A song by a half naked woman pretty much telling them to hate and get whitey.  "Formation" blames white people for everything while not really encouraging black people to do anything to help themselves.  It's black victimhood set to music.  It seems to plays up black excellence at the expense of insulting everything that isn't black.  It doesn't even have a good beat.  It's just more ghetto trash.  And why won't Beyonce wear cloths anymore?  If you have to be practically nude to keep people interested, maybe you're music's not that good?

There's nothing wrong with black pride as long as you accept that there's also nothing wrong with white pride or Mexican pride or Arab pride.  You can't say black people get to be proud of being black but no one else has that same right because they're not black.  That's racist.

And black folks can't resolve the issues facing their community without acknowledging their own culpability.  In other words, yeah some crap happened in the past, Bey, but instead of wallowing in it, why don't more black folks get off their asses and DO SOMETHING to improve their lives.

I've said it before but even when other blacks say the same things, they're called sell outs and Uncle Toms by the racist blacks who prefer to blame whitey.

Such is the message of ghetto music.  Have sex with everyone, smoke a lot a weed and, when your life goes to shit, it's all whitey's fault.  Like black skin means you're not capable of making good decisions because, ya know, slavery.  Excuses.

All I hear in "Formation" is excuses.  All I hear is a famous artist telling her black fans to hate her white fans while the media, not wanting to piss off the black fans, make fun of non blacks who take offense at black racism.  Cuz blacks riot rather than vote.  Cuz blacks say fuck the police instead of becoming cops and changing the way policing is done.  Because white liberals are so damn scared of appearing racist, they let blacks get away with pretty much anything even at the expense of white liberals.

Beyonce didn't make a statement.  She made a spectacle of herself to sell you concert tickets and reminded everyone of just how racist black people can be in her greedy quest to make money.

And we'll forgive her for it because of guilt and fear and she's Beyonce.  She's famous. She's pretty.  She's rich.

In the end, Beyoncé's "statement" is worn out material, tired hot air blown up our collective noses for her own personal benefit, a diatribe affecting no changes, signifying nothing.

A decade from now, no one will even remember it and nothing will

The Problem With Black History Month

Another February.  Another round of black supremacists screaming about how evil white people are and white supremacists screaming about how there isn't a white history month and how racist they think that is.  February sucks.

By the way, there technically ARE white history months. Irish American Heritage Month is in March.  October is a busy month with German American Heritage, Italian American Heritage and Polish American Heritage Months.  All groups of people now classified as Caucasian.  There's even an Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month and a Jewish American Heritage Month both in May, an Arab American Heritage Month in April and a Native American Heritage Month in November.  Of course, we can't forget Hispanic Heritage Month in September and October because, for some strange reason, they have to date theirs differently from everybody else.

The point is, there's nothing wrong with setting a month aside to appreciate the contributions of African Americans to our nation.  They did contribute more than just music and sports.  First open heart surgery was performed by a black man.  Neil Degrass Tyson is a national treasure.  Harriet Tubman to MLK, Tuskegee Airmen to Obama, African Americans have helped shape and build our nation and we should celebrate that.  But that's not what Black History Month is being used for these days.

And the answer is in the name.

See, everybody else calls their month a "heritage" month.  African Americans call theirs a "history" month.  What's the difference, you ask?

The word heritage would denote a celebration of a group's culture as well as it's history.  The food, the fashion, the traditions are all put on public display where the people in that group are allowed to be proud of who they are and anyone who's interested can explore and increase their understanding of another culture.  And with the other heritage months, you don't have to be a member of that community to celebrate with them.  Heritage Months are all about bringing national attention to a group of people and acknowledging how lucky we are to have them in our society.

Black History month isn't as welcoming.  The word history gets in the way.  See, it doesn't focus on black culture anymore if ever did at all.  There's no communal celebration of black contributions to society.  Instead, it's a month dedicated to whining about how oppressed black people feel and how evil white people are.  It's a month dedicated to everybody whining about how whiney they think black people are.  It's a month of rehashing slavery and Jim Crow.  Of revelling in black victimhood.  And if you're not black, you're not really allowed to celebrate with them because, to them, it's considered racist for a non black to take an interest in black culture.  Unless it involves white people groveling for forgiveness.

Black History Month is for black racists and it's a shame.

A Black Heritage Month could be used to celebrate black culture.  It could raise awareness of issues that matter to the black community the way Native American Heritage Month points out the poverty faced by many Native Americans or the way Hispanic Heritage Month highlights the need for immigration reform.  But Black History Month is just about demeaning white people.

You don't raise awareness about things by insulting people.  It turns them off.

But it gets worse.  Walk through the hood and ask random black people about their history.  Over half of them under 40 have no idea what you're talking about.  Their knowledge ends with King, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks. They don't know their own history because, even though there's an entire month dedicated to it, none of them bother to learn anything about it.  They're too busy whining about white people.

So it begs the question.  What is the point of Black History Month?  Answer: To pick on white people.

African Americans have a rich history but they ignore it in favor of hating white people.  They invented rock n roll, but when they acknowledge it, it's only to insult white people for enjoying it.  Their cuisine tastes amazing, but rather than be happy others like it too, they criticize others for stealing it when they've done the same thing.  Hamburgers are not a black invention, but they still eat them.  Ice cream? Not from black people.  Hypocrites.  If a non black person wears a do rag or an African print shirt, they are called racist for it even if the do rag is just to keep their hair out of their eyes and the shirt is just pretty to them.  Why?

Black History Month grows more and more hateful each year.  New Black Panthers calling for the extermination of whites.  Black Israelites calling for the extermination of Jews.  The knock out game that specifically targets light skinned persons.  Can you blame people for being turned off by Black History Month?

I'm not going to justify racism from any color of people and I do acknowledge that black people had some pretty terrible things happen in the past.  There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that past or having reverence for it.  The problem lies in how you treat others in the present and hating on white people for stuff that happened years ago, for stuff they themselves didn't personally do and you yourselves didn't personally experience, is wrong.  You can't change past mistakes.  You can only make them up the best you can.

Civl Rights,  Affirmative Action, the collective codling and ass kissing this nation does for black people is the best white people can do to make it up to black people.  And it'll never be good enough.

That's what Black History Month is a reminder of.  That no matter what white people do, until they are made slaves of the black man or whiped out by genocide, they will always be hated for something that a handful of their ancestors did.  For something they personally didn't do.  They will be hated for being white.  And that's racism.  Yeah.  Black people can be racist too.

No wonder white people don't care about Black History Month.

Black people need to care more about it though.  They need to keep history in context and stop the hate.  They need a heritage month to celebrate black culture and be proud of who they are, what they've accomplished and how far the world has come since slavery.  They don't need a dedicated month to be pissed off at white people.

Because they have 12 months already dedicated to being pissed off at white people.

Black Heritage Month.  Why not give it a try?