As the academic and cultural elites would tell it, history is a tale of oppression, and the Haves and Have-Nots are readily discernible, for they can be recognized on racial grounds. But what about the white poor?
In the orgy of self-indulgent masochism that so many leaders of our cultural and educational institutions are enjoying while America’s cities burn, a few truly stand out as remarkable. Certainly, CNN’s gleeful reportage that “NASA drops racially charged nicknames of celestial bodies” was unique—and almost as silly as Aunt Jemima’s and Uncle Ben’s summary dismissal … Read more
Over the last few years, some unjust blue-on-black killings have led to a growing consensus that racism is systemic, pervading every institution and social structure of shared life in America. It is a conclusion unmoored from fact. I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, during the Rosa Parks era, when signs reading “Colored” and “White” hung … Read more
“The use of Fashions in thought,” says Uncle Screwtape the astute, “is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers.” So, for example: We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which … Read more
Pope Francis has condemned racism, and what Catholic could possibly disagree? Responding to the killing of George Floyd, the Holy Father said: “My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.” I have to think he … Read more
“When men follow justice, the whole city blooms, the earth bears rich harvests, and children and flocks increase, but to the unjust all nature is hostile, the people waste away from famine and pestilence, and a single man’s sin may bring ruin on a whole city.” — Hesiod From Rome to Washington, the Successors to … Read more
I always recall the statement by the renowned international anti-euthanasia activist Rita Marker that “verbal engineering precedes social engineering.” Even a quick examination of current controversies in the socio-political arena provides abundant confirmation of this. One obvious current example is how the defenders of virtually uninhibited immigration or open borders choose readily to ignore that … Read more
The rhetoric of leftist politicians, commentators, and “civil rights spokesmen” after events of the last few years has created a picture of America as a deeply “racist” nation. The impression conveyed is that things are no better, possibly even worse, than they were in the Jim Crow era. This is after decades of civil rights … Read more
I was recently on a radio program commenting about the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship when people register to vote. One caller seemed quite happy with the decision because, it seemed, he believed there is widespread racism. I responded that those who make such allegations are bound to … Read more
Governor Mitt Romney’s statement about not worrying about the poor has been treated as a gaffe in much of the media, and those in the Republican establishment who have been rushing toward endorsing his coronation as the GOP’s nominee for president — with 90 percent of the delegates still not yet chosen — have been … Read more
There’s been a heap of criticism placed upon President Barack Obama’s domestic policies that have promoted government intrusion and prolonged our fiscal crisis and his foreign policies that have emboldened our enemies. Any criticism of Obama pales in comparison with what might be said about the American people who voted him in to the nation’s … Read more
Remember when Don Imus saw his cushy CBS Radio and MSNBC career go up in smoke in 2007 when he tried very early one morning to make one of his fake misanthropic jokes about the Rutgers women’s basketball team being “nappy-headed hoes”? Black activists demanded his firing. Advertisers fled. The corporate suits, appalled and … Read more
The real scandal in the accusations against Herman Cain is the corruption of the law, the media and politics. Let’s start with the law. Some people may think the fact that the National Restaurant Association reportedly paid $45,000 to settle a claim made by one of its employees against Mr. Cain is incriminating. Most … Read more
Among those who have been disappointed by President Barack Obama, none is likely to end up so painfully disappointed as those who saw his election as being, in itself and in its consequences, a movement toward a “post-racial society.” Like so many other expectations that so many people projected onto this little-known man who suddenly … Read more
It’s racially discriminatory to prohibit racial discrimination. That’s the bottom line of a decision issued last Friday, just before the Fourth of July weekend, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The case was brought by an organization called By Any Means Necessary to overturn a state constitutional amendment passed by a … Read more
The late South African economist William Hutt, in his 1964 book, “The Economics of the Colour Bar,” said that one of the supreme tragedies of the human condition is that those who have been the victims of injustices and oppression “can often be observed to be inflicting not dissimilar injustices upon other races.” Born in … Read more
Ask me what I am thankful for this year, and one of the first things that comes to mind is the social/political phenomenon of the Tea Party. To me, it represents a loud “enough is enough” — not only to the nonsense being perpetrated by the White House and the Congress, but also to the … Read more
If we are to have, as Attorney-General Eric Holder suggested more than a year ago, a national “frank conversation about race,” the first thing that needs to be said is that such a conversation is virtually impossible. Why? Because those who are on the “conservative” side in this discussion will be accused of either racism … Read more
Last week I explored the usefulness of calling people’s bluffs — that is, of swiftly testing whether the proponents of a given policy really mean what they say, by offering to grant them what they claim to want . . . and seeing if they will take it. If they will, then they might really … Read more
Here’s part two of Catholics in Action, an exploration of Catholic Social Doctrine from the personal level instead of the political. As always, these pages come from Catholic University’s online archive of Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. There, a new bit of Catholic sports trivia for you. I do have some misgivings about everyone’s … Read more