To a friend

to a friend deeply concerned about the condition of African-Americans in this country:

Thank you for sharing your views.  The fear of African-Americans, at least in my case and I suspect in many many other cases, including that of African taxi-drivers in NYC who refuse to pick up blacks because they have been robbed at gunpoint, is not based on skin color but on behaviors that are objectionable (as in demeaning, disruptive, inconsiderate, and/or threatening).

 I, a person of color, have just been assaulted too many times by African-Americans (not Africans or Caribbean peoples), both physically and psychologically in the past 45 years, to care anymore about their past or present issues.

Similarly, I have been "slapped down" just too many times by liberals (I count myself one), most of whom did not live through the Civil Rights movement as I did, to wish any longer to conform, or remain obedient and silent.  

Slavery existed at least since biblical times up until I don't know when.   I don't justify it--that would be hideous.  I am not sure if it continued through the Middle Ages and beyond into "modern-day Europe" (post-Renaissance?).  Why Europeans decided upon arrival and colonization of Africa to abduct black people and sell them to the Americas--and not Indians or Chinese, etc.--I don't pretend to know the answer to.

What is true is that the slave trade was not confined to the U.S. but to Latin America as well.

I don't believe there is widespread discrimination against African-Americans.  It does exist, but is grossly exaggerated.  

In fact, there is preferential treatment of them in college admissions, for instance, where 1/10 of white applicants (or Asian) is accepted versus 1/2 to 1/3 of blacks at my alma mater.  Two of the most prominent public positions, director of the Seattle Center and of the Seattle Public Library are African-American, in a city where blacks make up 12% of the population.   

I have seen time and time again blacks allowed to do things that whites would not be able to do, as in screaming/fighting/threatening/using violent language in public.   Liberal Seattleites seem to pretend it's not happening (look the other way), or rationalize it by saying "that's what slavery did to them."

Jews after the Holocaust, including survivors as well as their offspring, did not turn to crime or become pathological.  Nor did the Chinese, Koreans, etc., after the ruthless Japanese occupation of China when 30 million wound up dead.

I believe that films like "20 Years a Slave" and its numerous predecessors, including "Roots" and "Django Unchained" and "The Help" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" simply fuel the anger and resentment of African-Americans, pouring oil on the flames.  Hate breeds hate, and ditto with anger.   

They add rationale and rationalizations for hatred, rage, and destructive behavior, keeping in the public eye the misdeeds of others ("Nothing I've done compares with what my people have suffered.") and aiding to avert the gaze inside for a more honest, fearless self-appraisal.

Portrayals of blacks as only victims and heroes/heroines is not unrealistic, it is a distortion, over-simplification, and unrealistic expectations (

out of whack with reality).

Yes, surveys have shown that most African-Americans, including the well educated, believe that the federal government intentionally created the A.I.D.S. epidemic so as reduce the black population in the U.S.   This does not make it true.

In fact, I don't see many African-Americans adhering to Dr. King's admonitions to non-violence.   Instead, I continually hear the responsibility for destructive behavior placed on the Seattle School Board, the Seattle Police, banks, colleges, elementary schools, teachers, drug dealers, gangs, the federal government, state government, city government, Asians, Latinos, Jews, Arabs, fast-food restaurants, Hollywood, the publishing industry, you-name-it.   

It does sound like a conspiracy precisely some people actually convince themselves to believe it IS true --all those "forces" plotting to intentionally mistreat or treat unfairly people of a different skin color (granted, there ARE some people like that but probably far less than is believed by many liberals).

The ending of so much violence has to begin with African-Americans, for, in fact, contrary to popular opinion, 97% of the murders of African-Americans are committed by African-Americans and not whites or other groups.

To compare 150 years or even 50 years ago (in the Deep South) with today is nonsense.  It doesn't explain everything.  There are multiple causes for why individuals and groups behave the way they do today.  Even Obama, when he finally let go of preacher Wright, stated that to pretend there had been no progress since the 19th century was ridiculous; he also told African leaders before his election that they could and should better than continue to blame the West, based on their past, for their economic and political woes.

Kindness is a basic human right, and no one can take it away from you.  One can continually point the figure at others and/or brutalize others (and in doing so, continue the cycle of brutality/vengeance/self-pity) or decide that violence only begets violence.

The ones who make the biggest difference in the lives of African-Americans are African-Americans.  Anyway, many resent the assumption that you or I could possibly make a difference, as if they depended on others to make progress.

But if the parents, preachers, community leaders, and other role models are not instilling a sense of what is morally right and what is morally wrong in their children, who can (or should)?

Who is "doing it" to African-Americans?

Overwhelmingly African-Americans.


If even only one person tells his or her truth, it is still worth it.   Most people are afraid, and with fear, there is no chance for to take that long journey from night into the dawn of the new day.