The Myth of White Privilege

I am tired of the false labels that zealous people love to hang around the necks of those they perceive to be different. If they can't make a convincing argument for their beliefs, they hang a negative label on their opponent.

"Homophobe", "racists", and now "white privilege" are labels designed to make the "others" feel guilty that they are not as wonderful as the "intellectually enlightened".

I loved a quote from Stephi who responded to a blog about "white privilege". 

"There is no such thing as white privilege, the phrase is a lazy misappropriation of class privilege, and the concept is utterly rejected outside the USA. If white privilege really existed, it would be a social privilege that applied to all white people regardless of wealth or social station, this clearly isn’t the case."

In over 60 years of life I have learned one very important lesson:

Everyone else's perception of us is usually better than our own.

I have lived and travelled mostly in the western United States, with random trips to nearly every other part of this Nation and countries in Europe. I have met and spoken with many people from many different walks of life. The message always remains the same. 

If you think you are a loser, nearly everyone else shares your attitude about you. If you believe you are a valuable, participating citizen, most others will agree.

Where you live makes a tremendous difference as to how you see the world. A young black man in Salt Lake City can be just as overwhelmed as a young white male in Nigeria. A 16 year-old Protestant girl on her own in Cairo would have just as much trepidation as a Muslim woman in Rome. Whenever we see ourselves as a minority or find ourselves outside our culture, it is easy to feel threatened. By seeing the best in others and being our best selves, we overcome our fears and excel in what ever environment we are a part of.

There are some narrow-minded people that at first glance will place you in a pigeon hole that resembles the last person they met who looked or acted like you. If you act as they expect you to act, you will remain in that pigeon hole. If you act the best you really are and can become, they will move you to a more elevated position in their minds and hearts.

The writer and philosopher, Johann Wolfgang Goethe said, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is, but treat a man as he can and ought to be, and he will become what he can and ought to be."

If we act as we were, we will always be seen as we were, but if we act as we can and ought to be, then people will see us as we can and ought to be.

Idiots, bigots, and victims are not confined to any particular race or locale, but they are most skillfully surpassed by those who do their best and treat everyone else as though they are important.

A still from "The Illusionist"

The parable is often told of a man who was sitting along the road at the entrance to a town.

A stranger happened by and asked, "What kind of people live in this town?"

The man responded, "What kind of people lived in the town you came from?"

"They were all liars, and thieves," the traveler responded. "I hated everyone of them."

"That's what kind of people live in this town, too," the man replied.

A short time later another man happened by and asked, "What kind of people live in this town?"

The man responded, "What kind of people lived in the town you came from?"

"Oh, they were the warmest, kindest people I have ever known," the traveler voiced, "I hated to leave that place." 

"That's what kind of people live in this town, too," the man replied.

Physics tells us that if you conduct an experiment to see if light is a particle, it will act like a particle. If you test to see if it is energy, it will act like energy.

If you spend your entire life digging a hole to stand in, 

you shouldn't complain when you can't see the sun. - dlm

We each have the ability to change or remain as we are. Neither prisons, enemies, friends nor family can prevent us from becoming what we truly believe and want to become.

We will always see in others what we are looking for. Look for the good, look for their potential. Most of those who don't succeed, have never been taught that they could. We seldom realize how the small acts of kindness and approbation we give away each day, change the lives of so many of those we associate with.

Be the mentor, love without reservation. Follow the example of the greatest mentor ever, who said, "Love one another as I have loved you."

PC Police - Another Notch in Their Gun

The Politically Correct (PC) Police have struck again.

Last month it was Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich who was fired because he contributed $1,000 to support California's Proposition 8 which restricted marriage to just a man and a woman.

Mozilla has a detailed non-discrimination policy and some people in the company feel that Eich's action violates that policy, so much so that he should be disqualified from running Mozilla.

Now to put this into perspective, we must consider the following facts.

• Brendan Eich started with Netscape/Mozilla in the early days of the Internet in 1995
• Eich is the creator of Javascript scripting language, that is still used to day by billions of web pages
• The contribution of $1,000 to support Proposition 8 happened in 2008, 6 years ago
• Barack Obama was also an avid supporter of Prop 8 back in 2008
• The story came to light in 2012 with a little bit of flak on Twitter
• He was promoted to CEO in March, 2014; resigned under pressure in April, 2014
• Eich helped create and successfully lead Mozilla in various capacities without any complaints for 18 years

The uproar that was created by the vehemently hateful persecutors of hate speech, produced an environment inside Mozilla where Eich stated that "under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader." Therefore, after enduring all the wrong actions of politically correct zealots, Brendan Eich, a man who had done nothing wrong, nothing illegal or unethical, had to step down as CEO to protect the company he created and loved.

Now, the PC police struck again after Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was recorded ranting on the phone to his girl friend that he didn't want her to be seen in public with blacks and she was to never bring any blacks to a Clippers Basketball game. In retaliation, the NBA has banned Sterling from attending any Clippers or NBA games, practices, business meeting, etc., AND they fined him $2.5 million dollars.

I need to be clear that Mr. Sterling has a long history of employee abuse, racists actions and inflammatory litigation, (See Ben Shapiro's article). He is not a nice man and I would never work for him nor invite him to my home for a barbecue. I do not condone his attitudes nor his actions. But as repugnant as he is (See Ann Coulter's article), Donald Sterling, like Brendan Eich, is still an American with the right of Freedom of Speech. He has the right to his own attitude and opinion, especially if others find it repulsive.

To put this into perspective, this is the same as if Warren Buffet had a fight on the phone with his wife forbidding her to associate with any lying, cheating, manipulating stock broker; then he was told by the Federal Exchange Commission that; he would be banned from buying stocks, bonds or Treasury notes, he could never attend a board meeting of any of his companies, and he had pay a $2.5 million dollar fine that would be given to organizations combating domestic violence.

Or, if Bill Gates had a fight with this wife in their bedroom where he prohibited her from ever using any browser other than Internet Explorer and then the Association of Internet Providers banned him for life from ever using the Internet, forced him to sell off Internet Explorer and fined him $2.5 million dollars.

It appears as though fornication, adultery, tax evasion, public lying of officials, and treasonous acts of elected officials are all condoned activities in the United States of America, but having racial views opposing the self-appointed PC police; requires confiscation of personal property, banning from public events, and destruction of your career. At this rate, it will not be long before the media and social pressure are the judge and jury of the future.

Donald Sterling has proven by his actions that he is racist, insensitive, greedy, and a first class jerk, but none of those things are illegal. As I understand the situation, he has broken no laws or violated any contracts in this matter. It was a private phone conversation with a close associate and he probably didn't know he was being recorded, which in California is illegal.

If the NBA wants to exercise authority over the Los Angeles Clippers and get rid of Donald Sterling, they need to choose reasons that are based on violations of law, agreements, or legal contracts; not emotional voodoo and hysterical hyperboles. The only way to beat a bigot is for everyone to stop associating with him until he chooses to change his actions. His players can quit and the fans can stop attending games, but the NBA has no bite behind their bark.

I will not be surprised to see Sterling fight this action and win.


Photos are from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich
http://www.totalprosports.com/2014/04/27/clippers-owner-donald-sterling-racist-recording-comment-girlfriend-audio/

Income Gender Inequity; Discrimination or Deception?

Victimization is on the rise. Calls of discrimination, racism, inequity, and persecution ring through the halls of Congress and reverberate across the country. Anyone who is misrepresented, opposed, or accused, now cheerfully claims that hate-spewing bigots are innocently attacking and maligning them. What a twisted day we live in.

While this problem is rampant in nearly every walk of life, I will only address one issue today, Income Gender Inequality.

Thomas Sowell published an interesting article in GOPUSA on this topic entitled, "Statistical Fraud". 

He sites the oft quoted statistic that women only receive 77% of the pay men receive for the same job. The point he makes is that the figure is skewed and unreliable because there are too many variables that have to be factored in to make the statistic reliable.

"It would certainly be discrimination if women were doing the same work as men, for the same number of hours, with the same amount of training and experience, as well as other things being the same, But study after study, over the past several decades, has shown repeatedly that those things are not the same. . ."

"Even where relevant statistics are available, careful judgment is required to pick samples of women and men who are truly comparable."

I am not so blind as to not admit that there are many instances where bigoted, chauvinistic males exert discriminatory control, pay less, denigrate and heap other forms of abuse over their women employees.  This behavior is not discrimination, but greed, contempt or sadism. There are also other examples where greedy, contemptuous, sadistic women exert the same type of control over males in the market place.

Mr Sowell expounds how difficult comparisons are to make and how the realities of life, along with our life choices, affect our incomes and career status much more than discrimination.

"For example, some women are mothers and some men are fathers. But does the fact that they are both parents make them comparable in the labor market? Actually the biggest disparity in incomes is between fathers and mothers. Nor is there anything mysterious about this, when you stop and think about it."

"How surprising is it that women with children do not earn as much as women who do not have children? If you don't think children take up a mother's time, you just haven't raised any children."

"How surprising is it that men with children earn more than men without children, just the opposite of the situation with women? Is it surprising that a man who has more mouths to feed is more likely to work longer hours? Or take on harder or more dangerous jobs, in order to earn more money?"

"More than 90 percent of the people who are killed on the job are men. There is no point pretending that there are no differences between what women do and what men do in the workplace, or that these differences don't affect income."

The real kicker is in his concluding paragraph, (remember, follow the money).

"If the 77 percent statistic was for real, employers would be paying 30 percent more than they had to, every time they hired a man to do a job that a woman could do just as well. Would employers be such fools with their own money? If you think employers don't care about paying 30 percent more than they have to, just go ask your boss for a 30 percent raise!"

So, again, as with Obamacare, Immigration, or Fast and Furious, etc., the President and his Party are trying to use manipulated statistics, lathered with disingenuous outrage, to fool the American People into accepting victimization and teach them to rely on the Federal Government to fix a national problem that doesn't exist.

Image from http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/03/31/payday-a-comparison-of-three-popular-payroll-systems/

Is U.S. Ready For Second Black Leader?

Charles Hurt wrote an interesting article in the Washington Times entitled,

"Is U.S. Ready For Second Black Leader?"

In posing the question, Mr. Hurt reminded us how the Democratic Party and Liberal idealists have blatantly attacked both blacks and whites, labeling them racists merely because they disagreed with their own personal philosophies. From Clarence Thomas to Herman Cain, "pulling the race card" has been an acceptable method of operation to divert attention from their failed ideals.

While there are far too many ignorant, bigoted, narrow-minded sociopaths in this country that judge people by their appearance or the color of their skin, I have found that most of the population of the United States accepts people for what they do and who they are. We all have apprehension when we are introduced into a new environment such as moving to communities where the dominate religion is not our own or the majority of the people are a different color. This concern doesn't mean that we are racists. It is just the process of being stretched out of our comfort zone. After we have time to acclimatize, we learn to love and appreciate our new home and associations as much as the last place we lived.

In a recent article I wrote, Americans Are Not Racial Cowards, as a rebuttal to the comment by Attorney General Eric Holder where he said that,

. . . in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.

I identified who a racist is:

A racist is a person who identifies or defines people by their race, whether they discriminate against them or not. We will never be a nation without racial, sexual or economic boundaries until we ignore these boundaries.

In an effort to teach the truth of this concept I ended the article with the following analogy.

Four states, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, all meet at one common point. The sand, air or vegetation around this point is the same for miles in any direction. The only difference between these four States is in our minds, not in the dirt.

There is no better way to create unity in our country than for people to work shoulder to shoulder helping someone else. These situations can not be mandated by government. It is necessary for those confident in their own identity to cross artificial lines in the sand so others can follow. Mr Holder can and should step forward as a man, as the Attorney General, as an American, to fight for equal treatment under the law for all. Justice is blind to our differences, but smiles at our similarities. Only as we are blind to our differences will we begin to sense the symbiotic strength in our similarities.

I supported the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court because he believed in the principles I uphold in our Constitution. It had nothing to do with him being black and I was not disappointed.

I didn't support Barack Obama as President of the United States because I do not agree with his idea of changing our country into a Socialistic State, an idea that has never succeed in any country in the world, ever. It had nothing to do with him being black and I have been thoroughly embarrassed by him.

I would support Herman Cain if his ideals for this country center around hard work, sound fiscal practices and ethical political leadership whether he was black, white or green. I don't care if our President is White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, Mormon, Catholic, Protestant, Male or Female. As long as they are born and raised in this country, have a love of the constitution and the tenacity to defend it, I will throw my support and vote behind them.

If not, I will look for another candidate.

Also of interest, "Wanted, Real Leaders"