Buchanan on RACE: "We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?"

Does Buchanan have any valid points?

A Few

 

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None - He's a racist teabagger and I have HAD it!!!

 

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This post makes my blood boil.

 

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Other (please comment)

 

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"Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individ uals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??

Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving ' white kids.? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

http://www.redcounty.com/sarasota/2009/02/buchanan-to-obama

On this day in 1984: "Cosby Show" premieres on NBC-TV

Start:	Sep 20, '09
Location:	Brooklyn, NY and the USA

The Cosby Show, one of the biggest surprise hits in American television history, dominated Thursday evenings from 1984 to 1992. Focusing on the everyday adventures of an upper-middle-class black family, the series revived a television genre (situation comedy), saved a beleaguered network (NBC), and sparked controversy about race and class in America.

But The Cosby Show was almost not to be. despite Cosby's widespread popularity-- he had registered one of the highest audience appeal ratings in history as a commercial pitchman--programmers initially viewed his star potential with suspicion. His television career history was mixed. After co-starring in the hit series I Spy (1965-68), Cosby appeared in a string ratings failures: The Bill Cosby Show (1969), The New Bill Cosby Show (1972), and Cos (1976).

The Cosbys were unlike other black families previously seen on television in that it was solidly upper-middle-class--the Huxtables lived in a fashionable Flatbush brownstone, the father was a respected gynecologist, and the mother a successful attorney.

While the image of a well-to-do black family was familiar to many African Americans, it was novelty to many white Americans.

The Cosby Show was unique in other ways as well. For example, unlike many situation comedies, the program avoided one-liners, buffoonery and other standard tactics designed to win laughs. Instead, series writers remained true to Cosby's vision of finding humor in realistic family situations, in the minutiae of human behavior. Moreover, the sitcome's soundtrack was sweetened with jazz, and the Huxtable home prominently featured contemporary African American art, just like many other contemporary black American homes. Several observers described the result as "classy."

In many respects, The Cosby Show and its "classy" aura were designed to address a long history of black negative portrayals on television. Indeed, Alvin Poussaint, a prominent black psychiatrist, was hired by producers as a consultant to help "recode blackness" in the minds of audience members. In contrast to the families in other popular black situation comedies--for example, those in Sanford and Son (1972-77), Good Times (1974-79), and The Jeffersons (1975-85)--the Huxtables were given a particular mix of qualities that its creators thought would challenge common black stereotypes. These qualities included: a strong father figure; a strong nuclear family; parents who were professionals; affluence and fiscal responsibility; a strong emphasis on education; a multi-generational family; multiracial friends; and low-key racial pride.

This project, of course, was not without its critics. Some observers described the show as a 1980's version of Father Knows Best, the Huxtables as a white family in blackface. Moreover, as the show's debut coincided with the President Reagan's landslide reelection, and as many of the Huxtables' "qualities" seemed to echo key Republican themes, critics labeled the show's politics as "reformist conservatism." The Huxtables' affluence, they argued, worked to obscure persistent inequalities in America--especially those faced by blacks and other minority groups--and validate the myth of the American Dream. One audience study suggests that the show "strikes a deal" with white viewers, that it absolves them of responsibility for racial inequality in the United States in exchange for inviting the Huxtables into their living room. Meanwhile, the same study found that black viewers tend to embrace the show for its positive portrayals of blackness, but express misgivings about the Huxtables' failure to regularly interact with less affluent blacks.