Where is the Outrage?

December 16, 2001

by Charles E. Perry

Just recently a building of historical significance built by black people, was torn down to make room for the Clinton Presidential Library. It was torn down even as black citizens in Arkansas were in court trying to save it. The fact that it was torn down was noted by few in the media. I am, in fact, puzzled by the surprising lack of response at this act, and I have to ask: where is the outrage we would normally expect to see?

If Republicans, building a library to house the papers of a Republican president, had torn down a building blacks wished to preserve as a monument to the industry of their ancestors, no doubt the press would have leapt upon the story with tooth and claw. Republicans would have been severely chastised for acting in a racist and uncaring fashion, and it would have been held up as just another example of how racist and uncaring those rascally Republicans are in general. But for the Democrats? Nary a word about being racist or uncaring.

I’m sure Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, camera and publicity hungry men that they are, would have words for Republicans in similar circumstances. No doubt they would have donned their rhetorical sackcloth and ashes and beat their chests while pontificating loudly to all who would listen about a grievous insult to the black community. I’m sure they could have provoked a demonstration or two, and we might even have seen a full-blown riot as offended blacks expressed their indignation over the slight. But for the Democrats? Nary a word from Al and Jesse.

You might be led to wonder if there was some sort of double standard at work here. And you know something? You would conclude there was, and rightly so. For years Democrats have been given a pass by the media and the self-appointed spokesmen of the black community, and the stench generated by these acts of hypocrisy is finally beginning to be noticed. Well, it’s about time.

Democrats love to paint themselves as the heroes of the oppressed, and paint Republicans as racists, but it’s just a clever PR job, nothing more. Democrats love to speak about how much they love blacks around election time, and then sit back and do nothing once they’re in office. In fact, they do positive harm to the black community with their schemes. Take welfare. By making fathers unnecessary, welfare has virtually destroyed the family in poor black communities. The family was once the mainstay of poor blacks which allowed them to rise above poverty and prosper. Does that sound like something your friends would do?

We have forgotten that it was a Republican, Eisenhower, who first used troops to enforce school desegregation. We have forgotten that the 1964 Civil Rights Act would not have passed without Republican support. We have failed to notice that Republicans, in general, have been firm supporters of progress for minorities all along. I guess Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda was right when he said that if you tell a lie enough, people begin to believe it.

Well, I’ve had enough. Shame on you, Mr. Clinton. Shame on the people who are building your library. Something could have been worked out to save that building. Maybe it could even have been incorporated as a part of your library. The fact that you and your friends didn’t even consider it brands you as arrogant if not racist, and proves that you really don’t give a hoot about the black community, except how they vote.

Shame on you.

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Charles E. Perry is a freelance writer living in Michigan. He has done a variety of things in his life, including Ward Supervisor at the State of Michigan's Maximum Security Mental Facility. His degree is in accounting, but he discovered writing and now spends his time hunched over a keyboard, hollow-eyed, looking for just the right word. Perry is the author of "How Government Should Work: A Look at the Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States," currently pending publication.

Send the author an E mail at Perry@ConservativeTruth.org.

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