There are few sins against humanity more damning than destroying the hopes and dreams of little children. Yet, we continue to do it by drugging their minds with the biased views of old leaders and their worn-out ideas. Our culture seems to forget that every African-American baby is created each with his or her own special gifts by the same God as every other child.
Interviewed on the Michael Medved radio show, 1/20/16, Tavis Smiley was asked by Medved: how can Republicans better reach out to people of color?
Smiley’s reply was the usual laundry list of all the things Republicans can do to ingratiate themselves to the communities of color (in exchange for what? Votes?) Listen to us, said Smiley. Come speak at our churches and organizations. Address serious community problems, etcetera. Let’s just say all the things Smiley feels people of color are entitled too simply because they are, well... people of color.
They are people like all other people, Tavis, people!
If you can force yourself to get past skin color, you will understand that every person shares similar needs, dreams and, yes, responsibilities to themselves, their families, and their neighbor-Americans.
Smiley says (with a wink and a smile in his voice) there are “some” Republicans who are okay... some of the time. But most are not. Apparently you are an okay Republican if you support the things Tavis wants: giving special benefits to people, not because they have demonstrated merit, but because of skin color.
Medved’s most profound contribution to the interview was to describe Tavis as one of his community’s deepest philosophical thinkers. If this is Michael’s idea of deep thinking, well, that reveals more about Medved than it does about Smiley.
What Medved might have said in reply is that, yes, the Republican Party could do more to reach out to help America’s black community, but that the community ought to consider how to reciprocate. After all, if Republicans agreed to simply give Tavis’ communities what they want in exchange for nothing more than the promise of votes in return, that would make them liberal Democrats! Nothing worthwhile is free of strings.
Here’s a start. A few things the black community can do to make America take notice. To make it at least seem like Republicanism, conservatism might be embraced in their precincts.
Begin with honest self-examination. African-American leaders might as well stop blaming their community’s ailments on the very same Republicans (and by extension all white Americans) whose help they seek. Obviously it has had little positive effect. The negative effect has been to continue to elect liberal politicians who promise much but deliver little to change conditions in these communities. White America has plenty of its own problems, but knows blaming others for its problems does little to fix the problems.
Instead of demonstrating and fighting the police, black leaders should work harder with their local police departments to clean up gang-infested inner cities so their children can at least be safe during the day, and rest easy in their beds at night. Grit your teeth and do what Robert Kennedy and others did to organized crime gangs. Break them up. Disband them. Do what needs to be done, damn it!
People of color should reject any leader who doesn’t insist, from the very beginning, that their children receive a higher standard of education and work toward higher levels of personal merit. Black leaders and the community should speak out against and boycott any segment of the entertainment industry which glorifies guns, violence, drugs and misogyny. Demand Hollywood (including their own film and music makers) create more wholesome films and music: demand entertainment which does not glorify bad culture, because it encourages or inspires children to emulate who and what they see on the screen.
One fundamental philosophical difference between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives believe in self-reliance, while liberals believe in reliance on an ever-expanding government, a government which cares little about individuals and actually stifles their growth. Self-reliance is a more difficult row to hoe, but the reward is exponentially better.
The next time Tavis Smiley and fast-talkers like him suggest “If Republicans want our votes, they must do more for us,” the reply should be okay... but what are you going to do for your own communities in return? For if black leadership continues to try and use white guilt as a way to prosperity, if bad leaders and paid outsiders continue to fan the flames of dissent and chaos, very few will profit. Millions of black children will continue to be misled, deprived of their chance to achieve broader dreams, pride in their own achievement, and the financial profit gained through personal merit.
African-America leaders, if you keep doing things the same old way, using the same worn-out rhetoric, nothing will ever improve for these poor innocent kids. Their dreams will be suffocated before they are ever realized. All babies are born with gifts and talents bestowed by the same God.
