When did the civil rights movement go off the rails?
The answer is when proponents went from justly demanding equal rights to unjustly demanding equal results. As to exactly when this occurred, that’s more difficult to answer. But consider statements, made five years apart, from the Kennedy brothers, John F. and Robert F.
Neither brother was asked about nor used the word “reparations.” But during an August 1963 press conference, a reporter asked President John Kennedy about “special dispensation” for Blacks: “Mr. President, some Negro leaders are saying that, like the Jews persecuted by the Nazis, the Negro is entitled to some kind of special dispensation for the pain of second-class citizenship over these many decades and generations. What is your view of that in general, and what is your view in particular on the specific point that they are recommending of job quotas by race?”
JFK replied: “I don’t think that is the generally held view, at least as I understand it, of the Negro community, that there is some compensation due for the lost years, particularly in the field of education.
“What I think they would like is to see their children well educated so that they could hold jobs and have their children accepted and have themselves accepted as equal members of the community. So I don’t think we can undo the past. In fact, the past is going to be with us for a good many years in uneducated men and women who lost their chance for a decent education. We have to do the best we can now. That is what we are trying to do. I don’t think quotas are a good idea. I think it is a mistake to begin to assign quotas on the basis of religion or race or color, or nationality.
“I think we get into a good deal of trouble. Our whole view of ourselves is a sort of one society. That has not been true. At least that is where we are trying to go. I think that we ought not to begin the quota system. On the other hand, I do think that we ought to make an effort to give a fair chance to everyone who is qualified, not through a quota, but just look over our employment rolls, look over our areas where we are hiring people, and at least make sure we are giving everyone a fair chance, but not hard and fast quotas. We are too mixed, this society of ours, to begin to divide ourselves on the basis of race or color.” (Emphasis added.)
That same year, National Urban League Executive Director Whitney Young proposed a 10-year “domestic Marshall Plan” for Blacks to make up for past discrimination. His board of directors opposed it. The president of the Pittsburgh Urban League chapter said the public would ask: “What in blazes are these guys up to? They tell us for years that we must buy (nondiscrimination) and then they say, ‘It isn’t what we want.'”
Five years later, Sen. Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for president. He said: “I run to seek new policies — policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities, policies to close the gaps that now exist between Black and white.”
“Policies to close the gaps that now exist between Black and white”? In 1940, 87% of Blacks lived below the poverty level. By 1960, that number dropped to 47%, a 40-point drop in 20 years, the greatest 20 years of economic growth for Blacks in American history. Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down “separate but equal,” was not decided until 1954. This sharp decline in Black poverty preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
John Kennedy was right. We cannot undo the past. But by teaching Blacks to see themselves as victims deserving of “reparations” from today’s white “oppressors,” we can certainly make the present and future worse.
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. His latest book, “The New Trump Standard,” is available in paperback from Amazon.com and for Nook, Kindle, iBooks and GooglePlay. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryElder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from it.
And if it offense you the better. Because you are less likely to repeat it.
It is NOT yours to erase, it belongs to all of us.
History has shown there has been no major attempt by blacks to repatriate back to the motherland of deepest darkest Africa. The fact is that the poorest single mom on welfare in America is 300% better off financially, being better housed, fed and medicated than 95% of blacks who remained in Africa, where slavery by the way still exists, who to this day are still boarding ships, planes and trains to get to America by any and all honest or dishonest means necessary. Before LBJ and the Democrats carefully crafted “Great Society”, blacks were well on their way to parity and equality and most importantly the ability to SELF-govern. Democrat Government created vote bribes based on fake history, instilled envy, and most importantly ENTITLEMENT, turned the progress made after WWII to a Democrat Salute of an “About face” or proposed “Progressivism” in the form of delivered Regression, where the color of one’s face targeted you for a Democrat party socialist enslavement to drugs, government dependency, handouts, ghettos and indoctrination centers of hate and mind diminishment currently disguised as public schools.
IF you note, those BORN here who are ‘of african descent’, do NOT SEEM TO DO AS good, as those who CAME HERE from Africa, over the past 30 years.. THEY ALL SEEM TO work harder, strive better and learn more, than those BORN HERE Do..
Black Senators Walk Out Over Bill Prohibiting The Teaching Of Critical Race Theory , ” These Black Senators Who Walked Out , Walked out Because They Won’t be Happy Until The Roles of the White And The Black Race Are Reverersed And The White Ra ce Are Made to Be The Slaves. John F. Kennedy once Said of the Black minority Movement, ” when proponents went off the Raills was when they Justly Demanded Equal Rights To Unjustly Demanding Equal Results . ” to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, This is why the Black Senators Walked out.
Offended and downtrodden people—what part of your history goes away by receiving reparations? Why do you think people today should pay for offenses committed by others way in the past? Looks to me like we need critical thinking as opposed to critical race theory.
What gets me, is HAVE WE NOT PAID OUT more than enough in reparations, with all the welfare, and other entitlements that blacks have gotten for 80+ YEARS!?!?
WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?
To ” Son Of Thunder” I believe that no useful purpose will be Achieved by Paying Reparations to The Present Black Race whom many never had any former Relatives who were Slaves, but these Black Race would still like to take Advantage that they shared the Same Color of Skin And They Were Going To Get Theirs, Never Mind that They Had already been paid a Form of Reparations Just By Living in America, And Has Been Previously Stated, ” ARising Tide, Lifts All Boats . “
Larry Elder, great column on equality for all, not equity for all. The Democrats definition of equity for all is making people of color more equal than everyone else.
The equality movement in the 60s, MAY have been about equality, but SINCE The late 70s, to me, its been more about PUNISHING WHITES…
Jews received no special dispensation for persecution by the Nazis. There were claims regarding stolen property, denied insurance, and even reparations for survivors of murdered relatives paid by contemporaries held or assumed responsible. Individuals and their descendants who were not involved in crimes were never held to account unless they possessed stolen property.
The answer to those minorities,The bLack Race÷ through such organizations as “The Civil Rights ,, NAACP, And the public educational institutions including Teachers union. Booker Washington said,” There’s a certain class of colored people who make a pretty good living keeping the last wrongs and iinjustices for all to see ….Paralyzing Booker T. Washington….
Catholic Democrat President president, John F. Kennedy had a historical view of the demands of the Civil Rights Movement Which he later stated Quite Clearly When he Stated this, ” The Civil Rights Movement Went Off the Rails When proponents Went From Justly Demanding Equal Rights. To Unjustly Demanding Equal Results ” .