Come Read the Chapter from My Book on White Privilege and Reparations

Let’s be clear and forthright. Obviously, I’d like you to follow the link provided below and buy my new book, I’ll Fix America Tonight (well, at least by the weekend), and maybe even a few for family, friends, well-wishers, and coworkers. One’s primary pragmatic goal in creating a piece of art is the thought of benefiting from it. But I wrote my first non-fiction book with other goals in mind. I’d like to make a few people laugh while they read a social commentary book (something sorely missing in the genre). I’d like to change some minds and open some eyes to new evidences and methods of thinking. Most importantly, I’d like to give our country a plan for overcoming the issues beleaguering it at the moment. All while rejecting the idea that Democrats and Republicans can do it for us. My book was released last week just as the death of George Floyd sparked protests and brought race relations to the national conversation again. I aimed much of this book’s content at fellow moral and political conservatives, imploring them to change their thinking on the plight of their African-American brothers and sisters. Though it is lengthy, this is definitely the most important chapter of my book. Enjoy (and buy, please)!

https://www.amazon.com/Ill-Fix-America-Tonight-weekend/dp/1977222730/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=I%27ll+fix+america+tonight&qid=1591926362&sr=8-1

Reparations

Do you hear that? The ultra conservative keyboard warriors are cracking their knuckles and limbering up to make sure they don’t pull a hammy furiously crafting an indignant response to this one. Hopefully my logic and appeal to Biblical authority will sway a few to this side.

This is a touchy subject. It’s touchy for conservative white people. That means that most liberal whites and persons of color don’t care how touchy it is. White and black conservative commentators ascribe the epithet “victim Olympics” to those who seek reparations and other recompense for past or current injustices. In the victim Olympics, white people are dead last, at least in this country. Caucasians really aren’t allowed to celebrate collective victories, nor are they allowed to cry out in collective offense. It’s okay though. Many white folks have done okay in this country. Just look at the outdated colonial, expansion, and frontier laws for land ownership. In addition, some of the baser among them get back in a passive-aggressive manner by attributing collective embarrassment whenever a person of color makes a bad showing of being a decent human being. I think one way to fix racial tension is for everyone to stop doing all three of these things, but that’s an argument for another book.

The descendants of Africa, more than any other group of people, have suffered at the hands of this country than any other. The final clause in the first amendment in our sacred Bill of Rights allows every citizen to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. Have grievances been redressed? The freeing of slaves didn’t do that, as it only gave to them what was supposed to be assumed, guaranteed, and inalienable to all people of this land. The starting point for redress is farther down the road. Civil rights didn’t do that. It recognized black Americans as full citizens, something they should have had since the beginning if recognized legally (as they already did practically) as being in possession of full personhood. Once again, something was given to them that others of different races didn’t have to fight for. I see no redress of grievances so far. Some of my philosopher friends feel that if you’re going to talk about reparations to the descendants of slavery, you should talk about reparations to the descendants of those who fought to end slavery. This symmetrical argument is perfectly fine with me, but it is too often used as a refutation of black reparations, not as a wholly justified “while you’re at it, can you also...” I see no problem with a similar kind of measure for descendants fitting that description, but we first need to start talking about how to do this.

Now, I’m no progressive or social justice warrior. When I hear activist groups talking about the 1%, clamoring for the redistribution of wealth, and basically causing a ruckus instead of going to work, my calm and collected answer is that wealthy folks who earned their money honestly and ethically have every right to disperse or hoard their wealth in any means they wish within the confines of the law. And those born into those families who do absolutely nothing to earn said wealth have the right to accept it when daddy and mommy pass it on to them. Like it or not, it’s not really unfair, in terms of the dictionary definition of the word. I despise the idea of rich kids inheriting wealth simply by being born with the right last name, but I also despise the idea of government stealing people’s stuff because a loud contingent refuse to work for their own lump of wealth.

But, I’m also not terribly in line with many conservatives. They are quick to point out that Japanese were interned during Dubya-Dubya Two, and that Japanese are doing well on the global business stage. Plus, they get all the best Nintendo games before they come to the U.S. markets. Lucky jerk-faces. They are quick to point out that Jews have fared well here, despite a long history of oppression, Diaspora, and overall discomfiture. They are quick to point out that other Asian cultures, Kenyans, and Arabs all do well here, and that African-Americans just need to get with the program and stop whining. They are quick to point out that slavery happened a long time ago, that Africans were slave traders, that certain sports and much of pop culture is dominated by blacks, and that we had a black president. All somewhat valid responses. But allow me to retort point. by. blessed. point. Whoops, sorry for that. Let me get you a tissue. Enunciating my bilabial plosives often results in spitting a little bit.

Japanese internment wasn’t even on the same scale of suffering that slavery was. While this may not be comparing apples to oranges, it’s certainly comparing apples to apple seeds. Next, Jews were never, ever, never, ever, neeeeevvver systematically oppressed here in America. They emigrated here en masse in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when they saw opportunity, some of them coming because they were no longer welcome in their home countries. Watch Fiddler on the Roof for a fictional portrayal of this based on real history of the horrific pogroms which occurred. They came here and formed communities to help each other and they came here with modern education and skills that helped them get ahead as they formed these communities.

That last sentence doesn’t apply to Africans. They had their communities and families torn apart. Folks convinced themselves, their children, friends, and their government that they were less than human and unworthy of a voice, education, and the basic privileges afforded by families held together. Family is the last temporal line of defense against calamity, the most comforting salve when calamity strikes, and the strongest ally of prosperity. The argument I made of the Jews joining the melting pot rings similarly true to all the other races I mentioned above. They all came here of their own accord and with resources backing them up. Now we really are in apples and oranges territories.

Slavery happened a long time ago. True enough. But civil rights weren’t granted until the 1960’s. That’s one hundred years of not being recognized as a full human being and not being afforded basic inalienable rights. What’s more, (the following idea gleaned from my good friend Russell Andrews-El, who factors later into one of my book’s rambling personal anecdotes) civil rights really aren’t divine rights. The opening paragraph to the Declaration of Independence makes clear what divine rights are. It even argues that government may not take away rights endowed by our Creator. Christians, Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims, and many eastern religions all believe in an eternal soul; the image of God. This image is the only part of us that is everlasting, existing beyond the death of the fleshly vessel. My friend states that before civil rights, divine rights should have been recognized for the descendants of Africa. Civil rights, while valuable, mainly dictated the legal manner in dealing with public discourse and privileges, interaction, fair trade, and political action. Divine rights see the person as a complete equal without allowing for any limiting qualifiers based on any external factor you can possibly imagine. Civil rights cannot hold or precede divine rights but can and do spring naturally out of the recognition of divine rights.

 Cracker, tell me that can happen to you and your people and it not affect your collective psyche. To this day, black people who lived through the 30s, 40s, and 50s (men especially) look at the ground, avoid eye contact, and answer white people with “yes sir” and “no sir”, no matter the age of the Caucasian. This is a lasting vestige of a time when they had to fear for their lives when getting in the crosshairs of a racist and emboldened white person. Imagine the children being generationally raised in homes like that, what they heard for years and years about the things they needed to do to avoid getting Emmett Till’ed, and tell me that privilege doesn’t exist. Even when society was separated by race, all other factors being equal, the simple fact of separation conferred privilege out of a hierarchical societal structure. This is exemplified in the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka:

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of the child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.

That was 1954. Not all that long ago. We know that peoples with ancient roots don’t change their modes of thinking with swiftness and capriciousness. Americans tend to change quickly because we are a nation built partially on pragmatic actions in response to the incentive to get ahead. But blacks weren’t an equal part of this country until almost two hundred years into its constitutionally organized history, nor was there any getting ahead when they weren’t recognized to have equal protection under the law or the inalienable rights endowed by their Creator. And when Civil Rights were conferred, Democrats swooshed in with welfare and all of the negative after-effects I covered with the dexterity of Zorro with words that came before these words higher up in this Word document but to the left in the book you are currently reading. What’s more, we are fifty-four years removed from the signing of the historic Civil Rights bill. Keep that number in mind. Sorry to tantalize you, but the answer is coming up right after this word from our sponsors.

Africans were slave traders. Yup. As if that lessens the evil nature of slavery. Don’t qualify, equivocate, or rationalize it. Mind-numbingly obvious tautology alert: Evil is evil is evil is evil. I can’t and won’t fall in line with progressive commentators who say that white people are the worst people on the planet. I don’t believe this because no one race, creed, religion, gender, or other societal grouping is running a monopoly on evil, nor righteousness. Nor is any one race, creed, color, gender or other societal grouping innocent on all points. However, reasonable people agree that owning another human being is evil.

Moving on. Sports and pop culture are heavily influenced by blacks. True to some point. But those aren’t every day careers. They are out of the norm. We need to make black people in everyday careers the norm. Notice I didn’t say “jobs” because a career is a high-paying job which you choose once you’ve attained the necessary education and training. A job is something you work until you can choose your career. “But Nate, black people are lawyers, college students, doctors, police chiefs, politicians, etc”. True, but outside of a few exceptions, they aren’t those things in major black centers. They have to leave urban centers to do so. The overwhelming majority of black kids in urban centers see blacks working dead-end jobs for life. Black communities are dominated by liquor stores, dollar stores, and fast food chains. Not the types of businesses or colleges that give young black kids hope of something better. Businesses that enrich lives, provide necessary services, give wholesome and family-oriented chances for entertainment, teach people new skills, and such are dying off in urban centers.

White folk often say “my race isn’t as important to me as being black is to them”. Okay, but since you see white people dominating all walks of life, why would race be important to you? Black people yes, have to make good choices and make their lives go a certain way, but by very dint of their skin color being at least a factor, they are more aware of their race and it’s more important. This is where republicans don’t do a good job of seeing multiple perspectives. Just from engaging in personal and professional relationships, interaction, and casual conversation with blacks, I know that historically oppressed people don’t dole out trust all that willingly. Folks who are used to suffering tend not to give the benefit of the doubt willy-dash-nilly. Republicans have put a lot of words out into the ether about how blacks should vote republican because democratic policies and actions are detrimental their community. This may be true, but just saying it won’t do anything. A people that are distrusting due to history can’t be convinced with words. They need to be shown, and the beginning of that process will be tenuous at best. But it’s what is best, as reasonable people know that the give-a-man-a-fish paradigm and empty promises of the democrats don’t help in the long run.

We had a black president. That’s true. I don’t really have a great response to this one other than that accomplishment was a long, hard, road. And he was charming, eloquent, witty, funny, dignified, and had some good intentions. I disagreed with him on the role of government in ordering people’s lives, but I disagree with many republican politicians on the same issue. If he spoke non-standard English, would there be any chance he’d have been elected? I doubt it. Being a teacher, I have seen many examples of the racism of low expectations. Whenever a white person points out how well a black person speaks, they are engaging in it. Chris Rock has a great routine on this from the late 90’s regarding Colin Powell. I’d suggest you look it up and then get back to reading my book. I’m an English teacher and while I do spend much of my day silently correcting grammar, I don’t equate lack of grammar skills with lack of intelligence. Lord spare me from my own haughtiness if I ever hold such a heinous belief. Much of white America does though and would never vote an Ebonics speaking official into the office of the president. To be fair, they’d probably never vote a grammar-hungry redneck into office either. Sorry Caucasians. I know what snitches get. I’ll get the gauze out of my medicine cabinet in preparation for the stitches.

When I was a young man, my conservative sensibilities were offended by the term “African-American”. Anyone who’s read this far knows I’ve turned around on that practice. A label defining and identifying your racial demographic doesn’t matter to me, and I support you if it’s important to you, so long as it’s honest and factual. Conservatives still grumble about this appellation, saying we Americans should define ourselves as Americans. I would agree if being an American wasn’t so far down the list for me. I’m first and foremost a Christian. When I was a husband, that came second. Father came third. Being forced into divorce, father came second. Next is teacher, then Baptist, then entrepreneur. My denomination is not important as being a Christian because being a Christian is what takes one to heaven, not the sub grouping with doctrinal distinctives. Father, teacher, and entrepreneur are more important to me than being an American because I can love others, impact, and even change lives in those roles much more easily and profoundly than being an American. Were America to collapse and expire, I’d not stop being a father and Christian. I might even be able to be a teacher and businessman, so long as civilized society held on. So to me, it’s not all that important if someone wants to hyphenate their national identity. It’s not a sacred cow to me. This is a small thing to be turned around on. When one sees that small things are negotiable, one can engage in the inner dialogue that sometimes leads to different stances on the larger things.

And dear reader, reparations is an issue I’ve even turned around on. When I was eighteen I despised the thought of reparations. As a young man/old teenager, I distinctly remember watching a black pastor on CNN talking about how slavery was, in the long run, a good thing, because it brought his people to the best country that had ever existed. I am sorry I can’t remember the name or the date of that interview, but you don’t have to look far to find prominent conservative and Republican black voices nowadays arguing something similar. Redistributing wealth in the name of social justice is a communist ideal, and anti-capitalistic. I’m a capitalist. I believe in working hard and using what you earn to your benefit. What I’m proposing below is not a redistribution. But before I get to that, how about a little vamping? No? Too bad. It’s my book. Nyah Nana Nyah Nyah.

Several years ago, I heard from a black coworker at my school district about a “Generational Curse” that is plaguing young black kids, especially boys. She is a person I admire, respect, and fellowship with on a regular basis. But I dismissed her idea as more jargon in the victim Olympics. Upon further reflection, I realized that there probably is a generational curse. Young kids of color are growing up in a desperate state of mind, and many of them make bad life choices. Propagandized hatred of your own face, while not as common and pronounced now, is a hard habit to kick. Here is where your friendly neighborhood conservative interrupts and screams “But what about keeping the law, making good choices, and personal accountability!” and that is when you say “Would you have turned out so well if you had to grow up in certain extreme conditions?” and then you and he proceed to argue for an hour or so. I know that just a few wrong turns here and there in my life and I would have ended up in an unenviable state. I think the curse is real though. I’ve already addressed the collective effect on the psyche of African Americans so I won’t beat a dead horse. That’s got a lot to do with the lack of collective success in this country. But I think the curse is a self-fulfilling prophecy also. Think about it. From the age of learning words to the age of figuring oneself out as a person, many kids are told, internalize, and come to believe things like “White people don’t have your best interests in mind”, “We will never get ahead”, “This is not our country”, “America is not for us”,  “Rap, play basketball, find a scam, steal, sell drugs, or fail”, and other damaging ideas. By the time you were twelve, fourteen, eighteen years of age, would you not have internalized that despair, and make choices in line with it? So, if the curse isn’t real, it’s made real just by young kids believing it’s real.

White privilege. Boy oh boy, say this in mixed company and you’re in for a headache. Enough has been said about power structures, systemic racism, cultural trends, and wealth distribution that I can’t really cover new ground there. I am looking at a few different angles below.

Ben Shapiro and his ilk state that you can’t use racism as an excuse for the failures in your own life. This is true in a country of opportunity like America. Liberals love to shout racism. Conservatives love to ignore it. By now, you possibly have noticed that I take a middle of the road position when it comes to human arguments and structures. I don’t think racism is as influential in an individual’s life as liberals make it out to be, nor is it as non-existent and irrelevant as conservatives make it out. I, like Shapiro believe you shouldn’t blame racism for every setback and failure. Maybe you just stink at life. But I think it’s at least reasonable to say that white privilege exists in some contexts. Maybe it’s not as ubiquitous and all-encompassing as the social justice warriors say, but I think it does exist. I think affirmative action (a liberal idea and program) has actually contributed to it. Black people have to abide being considered “token” at their place of employment due to affirmative action. And when companies and colleges have to fill a quota, the unreasonable person who refuses to get to know their non-white coworkers can presume they do just that, not based on merit, and conveniently stop at the quota. Two good arguments for abolishing it, but that’s a subject for another book. Just like the generational curse, I think the idea that it exists actually creates it. Look at the black community’s relationship to police. It’s a common thought that as a black person in an interaction with police, one has to be more careful than whites. Whether or not the statistics bear this out is immaterial. You believe something is more likely to happen, you are stressed out by it, you are more likely to be tense and on your guard, and you act accordingly. This stressed decision making leads to strained interactions, which leads to strained relationships. By the hammer of Thor, I wish that logic was still taught in schools. Logic as an academic discipline shows the natural progression of actions and consequences.

One need look no further than national restaurant chains to find privilege. Most of them, when their menu says “spicy” actually mean “spicy to white people”. Except for Buffalo Wild Wings. As a whiteboy who is the exception to the rule of terrified white flight from spicy food, I have to give them much love and respect. Slow down crackers, and hear me out. If you think that adding Kelloggs Cornflakes; quite possibly the world’s blandest and most boring food, to Mac N Cheese; a food already lacking in flavor, is “shaking things up” or “trying something new and exciting,'' you need to swipe right and plan a date with Seasoned Salt (it’s okay to start with baby steps) and her even funner cousins from the spice aisle.

Beyond the less important realm of spicy food, there’s the matter of slavery and segregation. Ultra conservatives are blue in the face screaming about how there’s equal opportunity now. I don’t wholly disagree. I just think the starting point was different. Besides, it’s hypocritical to say “never forget” of national tragedies like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor while simultaneously telling blacks to “fuhget aboud it” when it comes to the national, and much more prolonged tragedy of slavery. Slaves were freed in 1863. Okay, and then what? Did they stick around the plantations, working and getting along with their former masters? Of course not. They had to leave. Wouldn’t you? Many came north seeking opportunity. To this day in Michigan, the majority of black folk speak with at least a hint of southern twang in their voice. This is not the white Michigan accent, which is quite nasal, rushed, and forceful with its vowels. Ask a white Michigan mom to say “pack the flash drive inside the backpack” and you’ll see what I mean when she hits the A’s. Black Michigan accents come as a vestige of the antebellum migration north. So there’s leaving your home and migrating hundreds of miles without a job or means to survive. Did the plantation owners give a severance package? A golden parachute? No. The freed slaves had nothing to call their own minus the clothes on their back. Meanwhile, the land base of what constitutes contiguous America greatly increased with territory acquisition. The government was handing much of that land away to white natives and white immigrants. No restitution to slaves. No recompense for their suffering. No land to settle, cultivate, and use to make a profit. Meanwhile, European-Americans had land, property, and wealth to cement their lives and those of their posterity in this country. Property is the precursor to land and land is the precursor to wealth. That’s why it’s so important to the development of civilization and society. Blacks had none of this.

Republicans love to tout the fact that Martin Luther King Junior was a Republican. What they conveniently ignore is that he believed that blacks faced much harsher obstacles than whites (the logical conclusion of which being that they deserved reparations once they were freed and given civil rights). In an interview (May 8, 1967) less famous than his Dream speech, he puts into words much more eloquently than I ever could (and in a more pleasing voice) the idea that you can ask blacks to lift themselves up by their bootstraps, but it’s a ridiculous thing when most of them were left bootless. Later in this book, I make the argument that private property is what makes everything related to economics happen. Blacks had no property in general. The closest many of them got was sharecropping; a practice that was only partially just and which hearkened back the serfdoms of the Old World. When they wanted businesses, parks, schools, and colleges, they had to settle for black-only institutions. So when whites complain that there are black-only societal groupings, they must at least acknowledge this is a lingering effect of government and white society enforced black-only groupings. Being seen as less than a full person went on for a hundred years. If you don’t like the phrase “white privilege” because it sounds like modern jargon that is relatively new, at least admit the damage that was done.

In addition, they had no flag. Ask an Asian person living here what race they are, they probably won’t say “Asian”. That is a continent with many diverse peoples. They will say what country they come from. Even within that country there might be different ethnic groupings. When they identify as such, they are identifying with thousands of years of history, cultural markings, and traditions. There is a flag to march under in this instance. Hispanics as a group only exist in America (Richard Rodriguez’s “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” speaks wonderfully on this matter), not the “Spanish” countries. When a person identifies as Spanish, they are typically identifying with a people descended from the Latins who, after pushing the Moors out of Spain, conquered and settled much of the New World’s southern hemisphere as powerful mariners. There is history and tradition there, (along with much suffering, cough cough, people who believe whites are running a monopoly on evil, cough cough). Once again, a flag. With history and tradition comes guidance. Guidance in who you are and how you should present and conduct yourself. The same goes for many Caucasian people in this melting pot. They can trace their history to some part of Europe. If they say they only care about being an American, ask them if they had a stable home with stable values and stable finances and a stable and consistent morality practiced. If yes, politely ask them to look past that as their starting point when engaging in this debate. Ask many black people what race they are, and they will sadly, say “black”, not understanding that a skin color does not an ethnicity make. Ask them what their cultural history is, they will say “Africa”, not knowing due to Diaspora, what region, tribe, and flag their forebears marched under. They only have a vague idea of who they are and where they come from. This is made worse by the fact that many tribal regions in Africa had only oral traditions passed down, similar to Native Americans. Oral histories don’t survive long when people's’ lives are upheaval-ed.

By all the tea in China, the term “Africa” comes from a Roman emperor naming the Roman territories in northeast Africa after himself. So even the common term itself for the continent comes from western culture. It’s why many folks have started to refer to Africa as “Amexum”, one of the original, and self-applied names for the continent. I know this name hasn’t really caught on, for as I wrote this paragraph in Google Docs, “Africa” was recognized as a valid word, while “Amexum” was not and had those squiggly red lines under it which are almost as offensive to the eyes as seeing WWII cartoons portraying Japanese people with squinty eyes and bucked teeth.

Look at your favorite literature and movie art. What’s the common ingredient in the best stories? It’s a character who asks themselves “Who am I?” and through conflict and a compelling story, eventually come to answer that question. Han Solo did it in a positive way when he flew out of the sun to save Luke Skywalker from Darth Vader’s gunsights. Frodo answered it in a negative way when he donned the evil ring whilst standing above the only thing that could destroy it. And so have many other characters from lesser artistic properties. Many white people often, in white circles, complain about black people not having social graces. I won’t go any farther down that road as it could easily land in stereotype territory, and while stereotypes are never 100% true, they are 100% offensive. However, I would ask “would you have social graces if you and those who came before you didn’t know who you are and where you came from?” In addition, black communities are overrun by crime on one side and harassment on the other. If survival attained only by constant paranoia was your primary goal for each and every day of your existence, would you possibly be lacking in the social skills society demands? And since many can’t really get ahead, that small but insidious contingent of whites who want to keep blacks down (not acknowledging that a people can flourish without another falling behind) don’t really have much work to do. Crime, poverty, government dependence, and pulling each other down are doing it just fine. Surely goodness and mercy, I wish logic was taught in schools.

A flag is a symbol, something to take joy in, an ideal to strive towards. African-Americans came unwillingly with no flag and still have no flag. Many Caucasians get mad when they see the American flag being burned or desecrated, or they get up in arms when others when folks don’t want the Confederate flag displayed. Why get mad? It’s just a piece of dyed fabric! We all know the answer. It’s a symbol. It carries emotional (either positive or negative) and therefore, intrinsic value. My beloved friends with a melanin suntan have no such privilege that comes with having a flag to admire and march under. I’d see no problem with doing so. If someone is raising a family here, loving their spouse, working hard, abiding by the law, paying their taxes, and being a decent human being, I don’t get all huffy if they march under a foreign flag.

I remember walking the Spanish section of Queens, New York, taking in the sights, sounds, smells, and atmosphere. I don’t like NYC living because I prefer elbow room and my city shutting down at night. I don’t say that last sentence to be flippant. New York appeals to many, obviously. Each to his own, and I don’t begrudge anyone who does enjoy living there and is put off by my preferences. I made my way to NYC for the first time in 2015 when a friend of mine was in a low point of her life and facing homelessness. I went there to pick up her five-year-old son and travel back to Flint, Michigan with him. I went through a bitter custody battle for my kids and could empathize with her as I didn’t know until that battle was over what the result was going to be. Any parent knows it’s a hard thing to face the idea of giving up your child to someone else. I ended up fostering him from May until December of that year when she got back on her feet. She’s from Honduras originally and came here looking for a better life, which she found after some struggles. She’s now got a fabulous job in the military and is more gung-ho about America than I am. She believes Spanish people should assimilate by learning to speak English. I happen to disagree, even though I walked those streets in Queens not being able to converse in Spanish myself. Were I to desire to have purchased fruit, vegetables, treats, trinkets, clothes, and a myriad of other items, I could have done so without the language barrier presenting an insurmountable obstacle. And I would have been engaging in trade with people who are selling products honestly. Demanding they speak English and think a certain way about every aspect and symbol of this country is just gross.

They are already contributing to America in those ways and means I just mentioned. I say let them connect to their ancestry without bothersome opinions constantly being thrown into the ether. America has continually put up real numbers when it comes to folks defecting from countries with less peace, justice, love, and prosperity. Just by coming here these folks have tacitly given America a wonderful complement. Making them march under the American flag during parades celebrating their heritage is wanting to have your cake and control the symbolic and constitutionally guaranteed free speech of it too.

Conservatives love to point at the economic success of Asians in America, primarily those of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian descent. They say that Asians statistically do better than Caucasians. This reduces the idea of privilege to merely economic variables. It’s too complex for that one item to disprove the whole argument. Caucasians drive the culture. Asians tend to stay in the cut. There are a lot of things beyond economic gain you can find more easily done when you are in the driver’s seat.

Conservatives also defeat their own argument along the way. Conservatives take pride in their ability to debate. This is why liberals are so much smarter than conservatives. Now we all know straight from the mouths of loving and tolerant liberals in our lives that only racist, uneducated, and poor white people elected Trump; no one else. See what they do there? Rhetorical rigor plays second fiddle to identity politics, so they don’t have to engage the argument, only their weakly contrived experiential validity of the speaker (failing experiential, immutable genetic qualities); rules determining said validity they conveniently make up and arbitrarily alter before the matter even comes to debate. A debater’s (sometimes even a master debater’s) ethnic origin, religious faith, skin color, genitalia, body type, number of hours clocked being bullied, special combination of fluid gender identity, and direction said genitalia points either contribute or entirely abolish a speaker’s argument before it’s even passed their lips. Easy-peesy-string-cheesy. By relegating themselves to the realm of reality and debates that at least pay lip service to making sure Lincoln and Douglas never hit the spin cycle in their graves, conservatives make a fatal blunder, one which is ever and increasingly become even more fatal-er. But, since they so ignorantly and blindly demand on real debate, they at least should level the playing field a touch.

How so? Well, by being consistent, of course. Conservatives have argued (rightly so) that big-government, Democrat, and socialist policies are devastating to the families and lives of blacks in America. They then are stupid enough to throw in denial of institutionalized and state-sanctioned racism. Being someone with his eyes and ears to the ground, I absolutely see a vested Democrat interest in keeping black folks down (insert silenced pistol suddenly going off behind my head and a burly, scowling man straightening his suitcoat and beating a stealthy retreat after he gently lowers my head to the keyboard so as to keep my children from hearing the thud from their bedrooms). Instead of showing blacks how the Republican way of thinking, and maybe a few Republican government programs thrown in for extra oomph can help, Republicans shout at black people how they shouldn’t be so monolithic in their thinking and dependent on government. Black folks, for the most part, aren’t having that, needing to be shown instead of shouted down. Then, conservatives turn around and emotionally deny white privilege. Can’t have it both ways and call yourself rhetorically and intellectually honest, you silly geese. If government under the direction of a certain people of a certain political bent are destroying certain people of a certain melanin-rich bent, then we have white privilege being squeezed out the star-shaped Playdough Fun Station hole on the other side. Conservatives also argue that major urban centers—the places where black Americans are overwhelmingly concentrated—have been decimated by Democrat control and still deny white privilege. Dr. Reality should immediately issue a prescription for Getwiththeprogramillin and maybe a small dose of Stophamstringingyourownargumentalix.

Only more perplexing to me is that people of a certain left-leaning bent who argue that America and its government have enacted and continue to impose suffering on its people, and yet they want to continue handing over more and more power to order our lives to said government. Talk about self-defeating arguments. Seriously, talk about it. From my point of view-that’s a topic for another book, essay, vlog, diary entry, or rambling and incoherent Twit…Twut…Twert? I’ll get it eventually. FYI, I’m not sure I’ll ever write on that topic. I might not have anymore writing in the tank after this instant classic, know what I’m sezzlin’? I intend to be the Orson Welles of political commentary books, weight problem and all.

Let’s make this section even more uncomfortable. Those decrying white privilege are actually contributing to it. Squirming yet? Give it time and keep reading. Those who fail to concretely define it are adding to it. Above I state that it’s not just about economic situations. Too often though, it’s applied to arguments police brutality, political clout, lingering white racial hatred, or a vague yet all-encompassing conspiracy to keep blacks down. I think that if a concrete, definable, measurable definition and solution were to be generally agreed upon, work can be done to counteract it. Otherwise, you’re demanding people change their hearts without evidence and using it as a catch-all. Might as well punch at the wind to change its direction.

In my next example designed to make you uncomfortable, the LGBTQ community is adding to it. Beyond the words comprising this paragraph, I prefer to define LGBTQ people as “people”. I don’t see a person’s sexual desires and activities as their most important traits. I love them and see them as fellow image-bearers of a loving and just Creator. But I must break from how I label them for the sake of this argument. Observant people understand that the claim of white privilege and the vast majority of LGBTQ come from the left. Here’s where the connection is clear to someone willing to dig a little deeper. The “T” is a hotly debated issue right now. Enough has been said about the ethics of everything going on but not much has been said about the privilege of the thing. Dave Chappelle said it best. The T smacks of white privilege. Black men are identifying as women and engaging in social interactions which draw public attention, but this whole subject is given credence because there are more white men in this society, and by logical averages, there are more white men identifying as women and engaging in social interactions which draw public attention. The widespread acceptance of young men going to the ladies’ restroom, changing in the ladies’ locker room, competing, winning, and setting records with women in track-and-field events, and even literally beating women into bloody submission in the MMA arena is due to white men and their overall ability to drive culture, social constructs, and politics. Conservative white men like to say that minority and special interest groups have political clout because of their professional victimhood. When you add white men to that equation it becomes less controversial.

Once again, Dave Chappelle is a prime example of that. There was immediate backlash from his first Netflix special when he dared to make jokes on the subject of transgender men. So much so, that he addressed it in his third special, and made up a story about dancing at a club and engaging in sexual activity with a transgender man for his next one, along with the aforementioned quote about this smacking of white privilege, saying that if black men were the only ones doing this, society would tell them to be quiet because nobody cares what they think. It’s a joke, yes, and not entirely true, but also not entirely untrue. Black men are the most marginalized group in America. They have less political, economic, societal, and other forms of power than any other group. Black men, more than any other group, have been pushed to the fringes of society by their government, business, law enforcement, white Americans of means and power, and many black mothers to boot. When it’s possible for a black man to “victimize” a transgender man, you know the victim hierarchy (which conservatives and reasonably minded liberals understand does exist) has been jumbled. As of 2019, his fifth special is causing even more consternation because he refuses to stop making jokes about the transgender community. By constantly playing the victim against a black man who is doing no more than making a living telling jokes, they are setting themselves in importance above a group of people infinitely more aggrieved by America’s history than they. And please don’t talk to me about comedy fueling bullying, hatred, and violence. People committing/inclined to commit such acts would do it without the inferred egging on of a comedy routine. Not to mention, comedy is a tool for normalization and acceptance. Criticism is a tool for differentiation and rejection.

Uncomfortable yet? No? Take a breath, because here comes the deep water. Black people are adding to white privilege. Take a minute to glance around nervously and get over the knee jerk guilt you’re feeling after reading that last sentence. I’ll wait. Done? Here we go. I’ve seen it in action in my own life. As I’ve stated above, I’m a teacher and a landscaper. I’ve seen white privilege in action in both components of my professional life. Dismiss my experiences as anecdotal if you will but I believe they stem from a deeper problem.

As a small businessman, I spent the entirety of 2017 and the early parts of 2018 with a black partner. In the name of fairness, Johnny and I agreed that we wouldn’t fully combine our businesses. We would split 50/50 any jobs we brokered and worked together. This was because I brought a little more to the table in terms of clients, equipment, and investment capital. He brought a little more to the table in terms of tree-dropping skills and word-of-mouth credence. So we were both free to acquire clients and do jobs on the side without throwing the wages earned into the pile. It worked out, and he and I were able to be a blessing to each other. When it came to jobs worked together, that’s where the equal split was supposed to happen.

Here’s where the white privilege came into play. Johnny refused to work jobs alone which I brokered and scheduled in white neighborhoods. I’ve always had a mixture of white and black clients, but he would only go to my black clients without me. Even a couple of my black clients didn’t like him because he’s loud and boisterous (Johnny, you’re learning this for the first time as you read my book, so I’m sorry in advance). He believed that he would be seen as suspicious working in white neighborhoods alone. I’ve already talked about perception guiding action so I won’t get into whether or not this was true. I have worked for hundreds of people and I would be a fool to believe that all of them were upstanding people free of prejudice. However, I’ve got no qualms about working in areas where I’m the only white guy, and so on several occasions I finished jobs without his presence and collected payment and forwarded his share to him later. I never had any problems due to my race. In my experience a white person is much safer in a black neighborhood because the fear of police retaliation if a white person were victimized is real and tangible. Once again, we are in the area of perception guiding action. What’s more, there were a couple jobs Johnny brokered without me but asked me to help due to my more capable equipment situation. It’s no secret black people like supporting black businesses. That practice is applicable here. Johnny abjectly refused to collect money from my customers. However, on more than one occasion, one of his customers handed me money with Johnny standing right there. The white-face-in-charge concept is real and sadly applicable here. This goes back to the generational curse mentioned earlier in this book. Black folks were taught to hate their appearance and race by evil whites in the past. This has a lingering effect. “Just get over it” is too easy of an apothegm. Long held beliefs and feelings are dreadfully difficult to drop.

Now, my teaching experience. I worked in a predominantly black school in a predominantly black city. Makes logical sense that the student population would reflect the community, even in a charter school where parents have to make the conscious choice to send their kids there. Even more so, the school was dominated by persons of color in leadership positions. As a quick side note, I can’t give up all my conservative roots and would argue that in certain work situations like this, government jobs, leniency given by Child Protective Services, and giving out of government benefits, there is such a thing as black privilege, but that is such a small percentage of society and it’s in response to whites controlling much of the power here that I can’t fully fault African-Americans for engaging in it. Maybe that language is too strong. I’ll say I understand it. It’s possible to understand something without justifying it. We as humans default to comfort and the path of least resistance. Anyway, I probably wouldn’t ever be the superintendent of this school. If I was, it would take years for me to endear myself to the community at large in order to accomplish that. I did what I could and for the most part, was given tremendous support by the parents I served. If race was part of that, it only proves the idea of white privilege. I saw my fellow black teachers and administrators excoriated and attacked (both verbally and physically on a couple occasions) by black parents. Not once did I see anything of the sort, even from parents who occasionally disagreed with me on ideas and behaviors.

I believe it had a lot to do with the way I carried myself when interacting with my students. I try (sometimes fail) to be loving, inviting, attentive, and caring. It’s amazing how many teachers are horribly weak on these virtues. No foolin’, in my travels I’ve actually heard teachers utter the words “I hate kids”. That’s akin to a composer hating those weird marks he makes on lined paper, a carpenter hating wood, the ol’ oak tree at the ol’ swimming hole next to the ol’ mine hating summer breezes, a cobbler hating shoes and peaches, an engineer hating pocket protectors, George Lucas hating obscene overreliance on CGI, a fireman hating fire, a freedom fighter hating his ability to fight freedom, and a social media influencer hating…whatever it is they work with.

I wasn’t terribly good on modern jargon of teaching, analyzing data, and doing some of the things that are drudgery for teachers. I maintained a standard of academic excellence in my classroom and was still accepting if one failed to achieve it. My students who maintain failing grades and goof off are still human beings, and I still showed love to them. Parents appreciate that. Frankly, I think it also had something to do with race. I am not the best teacher in the world, and probably wasn’t even the best at that school. I didn’t go out of my way to give tutoring to those who were apathetic to academic achievement. For my own peace of mind, I would help those who actually cared. The goofballs didn’t care, and I have a personal policy of not spoon feeding my content to the goofballs. They are not babies, nor would I treat them as such. I would try to mentor them in terms of bigger life lessons, and that made me a bad teacher in some folks’ eyes (primarily my bosses). To me, if a young man doesn’t know how to conjugate a verb, but does know how to carry himself like a gentleman when interacting with a female; I don’t see myself as a failure. I came to have a reputation in that school to the point that students started referring to me as the “white father” or “cracker dad” of the school. I really don’t mean to brag. This is a part of my experience that I will always bear and cherish, no matter how smug I might be coming across just now. These were terms of endearment, and bestowed despite the fact that there were older, more experienced men working as teachers there. Word spread to the community and I was given much love and respect by the mothers whose kids had adopted me as their father figure. One hardly ever recognized quality of black folks is that their grapevine is much more alive and vibrant than that of white folks. That, combined with the fact that black people in black communities are sick of white people coming in and leaving when a cushy job comes along, or not serving their community altogether, led to my being given favored status. Race is not the most important factor in our lives, but it does play a role.

Here’s where my privilege really shined. I am an English teacher. We are a dime a dozen. This is shown in the disparity of English teacher wages compared to math and science teacher wages. I worked in that school from 2012-2018’s school year end. I left once in the middle of the year for a job that wasn’t much easier, but I was horribly frustrated by the direction the leadership was taking it. Year end, the superintendent and CFO backed the money truck up to bring me back. The following was a good year due to the leadership making changes that took us in the right direction. The next year that leadership was fired and replaced, and I was once again horribly frustrated by those positive changes being reversed in lieu of getting student numbers (re: funding) up. I found and accepted a position in a different school. My employer came and offered me more money and a chance to leave the classroom for an easier job in the district. My 9th grade students went quite a while until a replacement was found and were served by a long-term substitute in the interim. That’s on me, to some extent. I was going crazy though and wanted to love my job but didn’t at the time. Here’s the kicker. Conventional wisdom says that when you’ve accepted a job somewhere else, you don’t accept a counteroffer because you paint a target on your back as a drama queen who needs to be replaced with all expediency. I accepted the counteroffer because I loved the students there, not the leadership, of which I made no secret. That should have painted an even larger target on my back. I should have been seen as an agitator who refused to toe the company line. I wasn’t. The next year (2017-2018 school year), they had fired another English teacher and needed someone in the 11th grade classroom. Once again, the superintendent (a new one; that place had a revolving door of CEO’s when I was there) backed up the money truck and hired me to come back to the classroom. During this school year, I didn’t do everything the way leadership wanted, and even called the MIOSHA office on the school because the students were coming to class on the second floor in unacceptable temperatures because the heating system wasn’t maintained and fixed properly. Repeated calls to my principal and the building administrator didn’t fix the problem, but a call to OSHA did. By August 2018, my lawn business expanded to the point that I could sustain my bills from those wages and I had started working on my master’s degree. So I resigned. I figured I wasn’t all that welcome anyway. Point is, I actually was an agitator that didn’t toe the company line.

Compare that with the experience of my close friend, Russell Andrews-El. He came to that school the year after I did, so we had comparable seniority. He is of Moorish descent (he refuses to call himself black), and a Muslim. I’m a Christian. He taught Math. A non-white, Muslim, male Math teacher in a predominantly black, Christian community is like seeing Bigfoot riding a unicorn and a leprechaun following behind with Chupacabra on a leash. You may not know, but it’s a byword in the teaching community. When you find a black male math teacher, you hold on to him. I lived an hour from work, so I left the minute we were contractually allowed to be with my kids and run my business. Russell stayed after on a regular basis to tutor in his content, despite not being paid to. I only coached soccer one year I was there. Over multiple years, Russell built a competitive robotics program from nothing by recruiting kids and building corporate partnerships. That was a commitment of four days a week after school (while he was also tutoring) and at least one Saturday a month from September to February. My soccer season only ran from September to early November. Russell offered to work on his prep hour when a teacher shortage in the middle school necessitated high school teachers taking on middle school students. I guarded my prep hour like it was one of my children. I was offered raises to stay there. When Russell offered to work on his prep, he proposed a temporary raise based on the extra hour each day he would be working. Temporary, mind you. They refused and made no counter-offer when he, out of frustration, found a job closer to home in a safer, less chaotic, and higher achieving school that was located on a college campus (i.e. an easier job). I was an agitator, and Russell was a banner-bearer. All things being equal, I gave them every reason to get rid of me, he to retain him. What is this but white privilege in motion? I can’t help myself. I have to make this uncomfortable again. Black people were the leadership of this school. Black people are adding to the concept. Once we sit down and have some uncomfortable conversations on this, we can all stop yelling at each other and solve it.

Got ants in your pants yet? Here’s another way blacks are adding to white privilege. They scold each other on a stereotypical basis. Scroll down Facebook long enough and you’ll find memes, pithy quotes, and all-out rants citing various types of evidence as to why blacks need to do better on a corporate level. Click on the comment section and you’ll see some blacks saying “amen” and some saying “but this” and some saying “white people also” and some saying “you’re proving the point” and some saying “I’m an exception and take offense” and some saying “only American blacks” and some just engaging in argument with each other. All but the most brazen and indecent whites leave these comment sections untouched by their two cents, but whites definitely do observe this kind of stuff. Occasionally social media posts go viral that are critical of white culture, but it’s usually along the lines of humor, like our proclivity to have boring names or shy away from seasoned food. It’s not direct and firm criticism of culture disease (yes, I know it is sometimes when a racist white person does something stupid/wicked/worth attention). Problem is, black culture in America is too widespread and too diverse to engage in blanket school-marming. Blacks who do this add to pasty, melanin-deficient privilege.

Then, ask yourself, is it easier to be a white celebrity, or a black celebrity? White celebrities, outside of rare moments, have it easier than black celebrities. Black people are making it harder on black celebrities (uncomfortable yet?). White celebrities aren’t pressured constantly to “give back to their communities”. Do white celebrities not come from communities? Do they just spring out of the ground, ready to dance and sing? Of course not. They just don’t get asked to financially prop up others in a collective sense. Are white celebrities asked to be role models on a scale like black celebrities are? Doesn’t appear to me to be the case. Are white celebrities father figures to young white men and teaching them to be men through their movies, songs, and music videos? Not at all. Yes, white celebrities, when they step out of their lane and say something political or provocative, are given the business by social media and Fox News, but that doesn’t put being a white celebrity on par with being a black one. There are white celebrities who support Donald Trump. Do they get as much hate as Kanye West got when he paid a visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave? Remember what I said about black people adding to white privilege (feel free to start squirming in discomfort...)? Here’s another example. A black celebrity can’t leave the Democrat reservation and think for themselves without being called a race traitor, Uncle Tom, coon, or house nigger (....now.). Remove this type of monolithic thinking along with the infighting over skin tone among the culture, and African-Americans can stop adding to white privilege. I feel like I’ve said “black”, “African-Americans”, “whites”, “caucasians”, and “white privilege” a lot in this book, no? There’s not a racial thesaurus website, so far as I know.

People on the right get obnoxious when they demand celebrities do their job and not be political. People on the left get obnoxious when they demand their celebrities walk in lockstep with the Democratic Party. Both positions are cynical and don’t give credit to celebrities for being intelligent, free-thinking, and thoughtful people. Everyday people who aren’t politicians engage in political discourse at their work, in their blogs, and on social media. No one tells them to just do their job and shut up. It’s condescending, rude, and doesn’t recognize that person as an equal. At one point I was only qualified (in the job market sense of the word) to work a minimum wage job, e.g. my teenage years. I decided to work a job walking and picking up the leavings of kenneled dogs. Even then, nobody presumed to silence my freedom of political, religious, and symbolic speech. The things coming out of my teenage mouth would have been even more lacking in intelligence than the political, religious, and (weakly) symbolic speech you’ve absorbed, maybe endured, as you read this book. Think of how dumb I came across then and thank your stars I didn’t write a book while I was learning to drive and crushing it at Super Mario Brothers.

One more example and then I’ll be done, promise. Think of the way people converse when it comes to suicide and substance abuse. White people (specifically men) are more likely than blacks to commit suicide. White people are also more likely than blacks to engage in opioid and meth addiction. Much talk about mental health help, recovery, compassion, sympathy, and other positive emotions and actions is being thrown about in response. The fact that many people who engage in substance abuse end up horribly hurting their loved ones and those in their lives, along with creating many criminal issues including property theft and death (meth lab explosions happen often enough to make jokes about it without having to explain the impetus for your joke) is often ignored in lieu of the compassion these “diseased” people need. Blacks are more likely to engage in crack addiction and alcoholism. Both of these also lead to crime and early death. Where is the same compassion? Do blacks have to go and just figure it out on their own? Does the high rate of death of blacks in conjunction with the crack epidemic not matter, as it’s not typically a suicide issue? As a conservative, I see the legal side of this and would like crime and dealing drugs to stop and those engaged in criminal behavior to be incarcerated and reformed, but as a compassionate person, I see that help and sympathy is needed for all people who fall prey to substance abuse, not just those from the dominate slice of society. You fill in the blanks as this being another example of:

 _ _ i t e  _r i v _l e _e. Don’t let the poor little stick figure die from hanging folks.

Mark this down as a historic moment; a white conservative arguing for the concept of white privilege. As I’ve said before, will say again, and am about to say now, I see a perfectly reasonable middle ground in all non-theological debates. You can’t dismiss the other guy’s argument out of hand just because he’s on the other side. One can entertain a thought and peck at it like a hungry chicken without wholly ingesting and synthesizing it. Conservatives can entertain the idea that privilege exists without conceding that it’s all-encompassing and deterministic to the lives of non-whites. Liberals can entertain the idea that non-whites are adding to it without conceding that there isn’t such a thing. Both can recognize and agree it isn’t as pervasive, ubiquitous, and oppressive as some portray it to be. I believe, like Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro, that you can’t blame white privilege on your lack of success in this country of opportunity. However, I also believe, like BLM and much of the Democratic party, that there is such a thing, and that it accounts for extra hurdles (sometimes put up by the very sermonizers on white privilege) black people face. You might notice a trend in this book; the idea of middle ground where both sides can be appeased instead of constantly throwing barbs at each other. I intend to ride this and many other fences all the way to the bank (maniacal laugh). I do believe in absolutes in the realm of morality and the supernatural. Beyond that, it’s hard to cement absolutes in the realms and structures we humans set up for ourselves, partially because those things we erect and so feverishly fight for are often tainted in the matter of integrity because they come with an agenda.

Moving on, I’m neither republican nor democrat. However, if I was to run for president it would probably be as republican, because of my own moral leanings and our ridiculous two-party only system. I would also run as republican because democrats have always been anti-black. Whether during slavery, segregation, or the welfare era, they and their ideals have always damaged black lives, which, I think we’ve established, matter. Southern democrats upheld slavery. The KKK sprang out of this demographic. They murdered and terrorized southern blacks. Dixiecrats fought tooth and nail to keep segregation and inequality alive. Margaret Sanger wanted abortion rights so as to keep undesirables (re: non-whites) out of the breeding pool. Welfare programs maintain a laser focus aim at poor blacks. Blacks were and continue to be targeted for the “benefits” of welfare, and the after-effects of welfare are damaging to the black family, and by extension, American society as a whole. What makes welfare evil on par with slavery and segregation but subtly different is that the latter two are not at all dishonest. They are up front and open. Welfare cloaks its damaging effects and agenda in the name of benevolence. The cool thing about welfare for those insidious democrats who want to be seen as the generous benefactor is that they keep their system in place, unchanged, and continue to be voted into office by people of all colors who want the welfare system maintained as is. Now, non-blacks can sign up for a form of oppression that is not up front and honest about what it really is. When you allow a powerful, faceless entity to dictate your life and actions to you in return for a paltry subsistence, it’s an updated form of slavery. It’s only by the miraculous grace of God that some blacks have, as conservatives are fond of pointing out, risen above these circumstances to attain wealth, land, power, and influence.

Now, an appeal to the Bible. Many conservatives are either Christians or amenable to the Biblical economy of morality. If you’re a liberal atheist, this section isn’t for you. Take comfort in the fact that I’m making an appeal to conservatives to make a change. It’s been fifty-four years since Lyndon Johnson put pen to paper, and (allegedly) made a terribly offensive remark about black people voting democrat from here on out. Fifty-four years are a little more than two generations. Why is this important? Exodus 20: 5 states:

“You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.”

The third and fourth generation of those who hate me. This passage, as can be seen in the first part of the verse, is addressing the idea of following other gods and what will happen to the posterity of those who do. Doesn’t apply in this discussion? Well, I would ask you if the Bible is an efficient book. Systematic? Not really. It’s not laid out in a chronological or systematic manner. Multiple books often recount the same stories or elucidate the same doctrine. The most systematic book is Romans because the Apostle Paul knew that the Romans had a system for everything. Other than that, it’s not systematic. It is efficient, however. If you believe in a creator God, you believe that He had knowledge of every transgression that will ever be committed, and could address multiple transgressions with one group of words. And our forefathers who owned slaves were hating God by enslaving and withholding the rights of blacks.

If a human has a soul, imprinted on them in the image of God, then hating them, or treating them in a hateful way, oppressing them, and murdering them are all hating God. It’s not just the same ballpark, it’s not just comparing similar things. It is hating God. I John 4:20 is perfectly clear about that. No way around it. What’s more, the verse is addressing the first and greatest commandment, the one that commands only worship of God. By owning another human, or denying that other human full humanhood, you are setting yourself above them, thereby worshipping a being (yourself) other than God. Either way, you’re toast, along with your progeny. God is visiting upon the descendants of those who hated blacks the sins of the fathers. It’s no wonder SJW’s, progressives, reparation apologists, black supremacists, and people who see no moral wrong in persecuting whites are running full tilt (or maybe just getting revved up) right now. We are in the beginning of the third generation for this Biblical warning. I don’t even think it will stop with the fourth. By saying the third and fourth generations, God was saying it would be ongoing. We need to fix the effects of this injustice. While I’m not responsible for the sins of my forebears, and blacks today cannot claim victimhood to the level of yesteryear, I believe that it’s possible, righteous even, to be part of the rectifying of these sins, especially were it to change the statuses and hearts in future generations of our historically poorest and most downtrodden citizens.

In addition, the American Indian had a rough go due to Andrew Jackson and other like-minded monsters. Native Americans are so small in population and so weak politically that we mostly keep them out of sight, out of mind. As if that makes it any better. So what I suggest below for African Americans should also be prescribed to Native Americans, along with being granted their own land and not reservations occupied at the behest of government. I’m Native American in descent, but I have providentially been spared reservation living. I thank God for it. Living on land that the government won’t wholly cede to you is depressing, and doesn’t encourage investing in, working, and cultivating said land. Were the government to enact my plan below for Native Americans, I’d refuse the benefits. I’m by no means rich and have suffered much discomfiture, but I’ve done all right, and this book is my early retirement plan. If we all do our part in buying, reading, and giving copies of this book out to friends and family at Christmas time, any grave injustice I’ve suffered at the hands of my ex wife, smackheads and thugs who have stolen from me, and the decisions of my younger, dumber self will magically be made all right by the dune buggy/amphibious assault vehicle I intend to buy and use to amphibiously assault a fortified stronghold housing some ponytailed, chronically scowling types with the profits.

So tell me what we do, already. You’re droning on and on. We can’t institute forty-acres-and-a-mule. It’s unfeasible because every inch of land in this fair country is owned privately, commercially, by sovereign Indian tribes (or occupied by less than sovereign tribes), or by the government. If you try to start taking away land you’ll have civil unrest at the very least, civil war at the most. That’s not even scare tactics or a slippery slope argument. Folks won’t have anyone taking their land. I’m not saying it’s right but it is reality. I am compassionate to the stolen land argument but can’t see an easy way to rectifying that historical injustice without bloodshed. So, as I’ve posed earlier in this loquacious tome, money is a fabulous motivator.

I think I’ve devised a way that will not make either side of the aisle terribly mad. Maybe even some will be moderately pleased with it. That’s all I can ask for at this point. Step one. Get up, shower, shave, and have a morning coffee or line of potent cocaine. Your choice. There’s a lot of work to be done. Step two. Institute a program which awards any descendant of oppressed people of legal working age twice the amount of their most financially lucrative fiscal year as reparations from the government. Give them a reasonable number of years in which to take advantage of this program. Basically, motivate them to get it done as quickly as possible. Step three. Figure out a year to cut this off. There must be an endpoint (something government is really bad at figuring out). The children still in their formative years have time left in which to see their lives better and learn to make productive choices. The children who are twelve, thirteen, and fourteen have already had much damage done, so they should be able to take advantage of the program once they enter adulthood. Step four. Give tax incentives (or extra votes, as I suggested earlier, above, recently, and in the past) to corporations, companies, private individuals of means (particularly black individuals who don’t need this program but would like to be a benefactor), and trade incentives to other countries who donate specifically to this program, making it possible even to designate to whom their money goes so as to increase human interaction and brotherly love. For blacks who choose not to give but also want to opt out, there must be an incentive like temporary but significant reduction of income tax or increasing of personal voting power. Step five. Encourage African Americans who have not reached their earning potential on previous tax returns to head out in December and get second jobs and work like mad men, accumulating as much taxable income as possible in the coming year so as to maximize their future payment. Watch the tax revenues roll in, the unemployment rate bottom out, and welfare dependency among the poorest blacks noticeably drop. Step six. Have financial specialists in place when it comes time to hand over the money. These are people who can work with individuals to make a plan to turn this money into more money. This involves personal living budgets, savings accounts, retirement plans, stock portfolios, business investments/startups/latch-ons, land acquisition, and life insurance. We don’t have an aristocracy in America, but it is true that many folks come from what one could label “old money”. Business investments, stocks, and life insurance plans will ensure future generations of blacks will come from old money. Step seven. Watch the country once again strive and move towards American exceptionalism, this time sans the inequality that still existed in the fifties and sixties (the golden age of the American worker and middle class but not so much an age of racial equality). Not within the next eight-year reign of whoever holds the highest office, but definitely within the next couple generations. Step eight. Tear down the white guilt bank (not immediately but eventually) and stop arguing about the existence of white privilege because there is no need anymore.

You like that? I even did it without help from my dad. Revolutions start with revolutionary ideas. Liberals can be happy that reparations are happening. Conservatives can be happy that it’s not through redistribution of wealth, and is predicated on hard work and capitalist ideals. Also, it’s not a cookie-cutter approach. Not everyone gets the same thing. Everyone gets what they earned. Seems to me that’s a good working example of fairness. Any dogmatic republicans whose faces turn cherry-red at even the mention of white privilege and reparations could at least take solace in the fact that if reparations were enacted by a republican legislature and sitting republican president, there would be a massive voting shift back to republican for black Americans. Most blacks actually live their lives with conservative ideals, are at the very least amenable to Christianity, believe the money they make should be kept, enjoy baseball and apple pie just like the next guy, and (except for a few large cities like New York) don’t engage in abortion at a higher rate than the other races. The problem with conservatives is they are going no further right now than saying “Democrats are bad for black people”. Historically oppressed people don’t bet their trust money on another horse with just a few words and criticism of large, Democratic-controlled cities. They want to be shown a plan. Responding with “just work hard and make your own life better” isn’t a plan. If conservatives think black people wrongfully count on the government to better their lives, give them a plan where the government can help them be better through government programs that incentivize exceptionalism over a meager paycheck and food stamps. I think we’d see a mass exodus of blacks from the DNC if this, or some variation on it happens. If a utilitarian view of the matter won’t placate them, I have nothing else to offer. Conservatives are free to exercise their freedom to inveigh against me in the forms of blogs, books, and rambling Facebook posts often and passionately. I would ask that they just be cool and not call me fat. I’m pretty sensitive about my weight.