Racism lives on.

I had a weird thing happen the other day. I went out to walk my youngest to the bus stop and there were these folders and papers strewn all over the street. I started picking them up and as I was looking at them I noticed they were work related and thumbing through the papers I realized I knew who's work this was. It was a mother of one of my daughter's Jr High friends when they had cheered together. I didn't know the mom well, except to see her at games, but her work number was on the papers so when I got home I called her. It seems her car had gotten broken into the night before and they had stolen her laptop and her briefcase. They had obviously thrown out what was in the briefcase. She was very grateful to have all the papers and said she would come get them.

I knew that she worked for a Human Resource firm and I was looking through her stuff. (yes, I know nosy and all that) Anyway, during meetings it seemed she had jotted notes on the side of some papers. One word caught my eye and I looked down the page to see what she had written. This was it: "Why all these niggers? For more of a head count?" My jaw just dropped. I asked my daughter to look at it and see if I was reading it wrong somehow. But she clearly saw the same thing. I tried to figure out some other word that could be but none came to me.

Her daughter ended up coming to get the papers so I couldn't ask about it. Which I am sure the first thing she would have said is "What the hell are you doing reading my stuff?" And she would have a point. But it saddened me that mature people would still write such a thing.

When I think of all I saw growing up in Mississippi. When I know how much pain blacks had to go through on their way to civil rights. When I think about the black families I knew. I am even more sad to think that so many young black people think nothing of calling each other the "n' word and that they listen to music that degrades women and sex and glorify the thugs that sing it. And most of all I feel sad for the breakdown of the black family. This is the warpath that Bill Cosby is on. 80% of black children being born into single family homes is just wrong and certainly not part of the dream of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.

I saw a documentary not to long ago about Harlem in the 40's. The blacks had created their own little world there since they weren't accepted in the white one. Harlem thrived with business's and great blues music. Most families were in tact. They even had their own high society with fancy teas and balls.

As I was watching, I wondered that if any of those people were suddenly thrown into the future and saw Harlem today, how horrified they would be. I wondered if they would think it was worth it? Was their sacrifice worth this???? I think they would want to know what the hell happened?

What did happen? I think there are many factors. The main one being the welfare state. I personally witnessed this program take away the dignity of the black man. I saw welfare make it acceptable for a woman to have children without a man. It gave a man the excuse to run. It is, to me, the single worst thing to happen to black people after the civil rights movement.

That, mixed with popular culture and the victim status that the democratic party convinced blacks to believe in, contributed to the social ills they suffer today.

The social ills in turn give people like this mother I mentioned above an excuse to see them as 2nd class citizens. The answer is what it has always been. Education, manners, moral values, maturity, ambition, and hard work.

Of course every race needs these things. And what people like the woman who wrote that in her papers need is a good kick in the ass.