By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources
Its an issue that have been simmering in the minds of a lot of people who were afraid to say in public what they were thinking privately. And, finally last night on CNN’s Crossfire, it bubbled over. The guests were two black men - one of them the very articulate and outspoken conservative Presidential candidate, Alan Keyes. The other, naturally, was a typical black Clinton apologist, Bob Johnson, who heads the highly successful Black Entertainment Network.
Bob Novak set the stage, saying: "Bob Johnson, I don’t get stunned easily, but reading the New Yorker it knocked me out. Let me read you this quote by Toni Morrison, one of America’s distinguished writers - talking about Bill Clinton.
" ‘This is our first black president, blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trait of blackness - single parent household, born poor, working class, saxophone playing, MacDonalds and junk food and fun-lovin’ boy from Arkansas.’
"Is that why 90% of the blacks support him?"
Johnson responded, "She’s absolutely right! President Clinton has been absolutely the best president for African Americans. His policies, his appointments, his commitment to African-American people has been absolutely on point. And, as a result of that, he’s got 90+% support from African-Americans whether they are in business or politics, and I expect it to continue."
Novak responded, "There is something else she said, and, frankly, it disturbed me. She wrote, ‘This is the way blacks in America think. No matter how smart you are, or how hard you work, how much you make, we will put you in your place, or put you out of the place you have somehow acquired without our permission to achieve; you will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace and, who knows, maybe sentenced and jailed too.’
"Now, Bob Johnson, who is much richer than Bill Press and I, and much more successful, YOU don’t think that, do you?"
And the bombshell from a wealthy, black entrepreneur, "Well, what I think that Toni has captured is that black people have this feeling that no matter how much they achieve or how much they accomplish, society is out there to take it away. I think they identify with President Clinton. He’s an underdog at this particular time. They identify with his commitment to black America and they think the Republican Party is trying to snatch that away."
At that point I was dumbfounded. What this man was saying, and what Toni Morrison was saying, was exactly what I heard in my childhood in the South to justify the need for segregation. "Negroes," I was told as a child growing up dirt poor in Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee, "just aren’t like us. They have no morals. They don’t see anything wrong with having babies when they aren’t married, and stealing, and lying, and killing each other. They are better off living in their own part of town. They’re much happier there."
What I heard was Bob Johnson totally ignoring the crux of the matter - the casual use of a young woman by Clinton for sex, who wasn’t his wife, the lies, the obstruction of justice, the abuse of power - but, because Clinton has now been declared a "black brother" - he is now an "underdog" because he is supposed to be excused from the laws if he’s a black guy. That’s what the segregationists said. They said you couldn’t expect Negroes to abide by the laws - they aren’t smart enough and they have this genetic inferiority that keeps them from being able to live the "white man’s" laws. After all this ranting and raving and marching and hand-wringing over equality for blacks now we are being told by a prominent black writer and a wealthy black businessman that the segregationists have been right all this time? It’s really true that the blacks, and those like Bill Clinton who are accepted as "blacks" are constitutionally incapable of abiding by a moral code or the laws of the land?
Fortunately, Crossfire had also invited a representative of the 10% of the black population who was probably more horrified than I was. Asked how he would "explain" the 90% black support for Clinton, Alan Keyes retorted, "I don’t try to explain figures that come out of these polls, because I don’t accept the poll. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that these phony polls really reflect anything that is really going on in the country. These phony opinion polls are like the oracles of ancient Greece and anybody who pays attention to them will be getting as reliable a response as the ancient pagans used to get from the oracles. They are phony. They exist only to manipulate expectations.
"And, today, the expectation they want to manipulate is the expectation that, sadly, seems to be confirmed by the brainwashed Step-and-Fetch-It morally depraved like Tony Morrison. That is to say, an adulterous, lying, president who has betrayed his marriage vows, his oath to his country, who has sullied the Oval Office with the unbridled inability to control his lust for the sake of his promises and his country - SHE says that is typically black?
"Apparently she didn’t know my father. He was a soldier for 33 years and never disrespected his oath. He was somebody who raised his family, his children, to respect the truth and if he thought we DIDN’T respect the truth, he would beat us if thought we deserved it.
"And, my mother - somebody who was somebody who actually respected God, and had faith in God and believed that his commandments were something you should respect. THAT is typically black as far as I’m concerned - the God fearing, law abiding, disciplined, family centered, hard working black people in this country. An adulterous, lying, manipulative president is not black in thinking."
By then Bob Johnson was stammering, Bill Press was white-faced, Bob Novak was trying to keep a straight face and I was congratulating myself for having voted for Alan Keyes for President in the 1996 California primary. Only Alan Keyes could have said that and not been instantly attacked as a racist. We are living in those times that Isaiah, the Old Testament Prophet, warned us about when he said "evil would be called good and good would be called evil," and those who are "wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight" would "justify the wicked." We seem to have a lot of justifying the wicked going on over the airwaves these days and evil being called "good" - or at least "OK".
I have known for a long time that the "liberal" approach to race problems have nearly destroyed the black family. I discovered after years of working with liberals in the Democratic party that their proposed "solutions" were destroying black people in the inner city and thought, at first, it was just bad philosophy. I eventually concluded that, actually, the problem was such deeply ingrained hatred and contempt for black people that the liberals had totally accepted the notions of the segregationists - that black people were so genetically inferior to white people that they were incapable of becoming moral, law abiding, and equal to white people.
The liberal solution to this perceived problem has been to lower the moral code, lower the legal code, lower educational requirement, lower the expectations so that black people don’t HAVE to meet high standards which they believe they are simply incapable of meeting. There is no better way to keep the blacks enslaved than to lie to them, convincing them they can’t do ANYTHING without help from the white master. And, a surprisingly large number of blacks in America, who have listened to the white liberals and black opportunists like Jesse Jackson, have bought into it.
One of the first things Bill Clinton "accomplished" when he had a Democratically controlled Congress, was to expand "disabilities" to include alcoholism and drug addiction. By 1994 the drug addicts and alcoholics were getting their checks in the mail through SSI - which is one reason why the Social Security system is in financial difficulty. But those drug addicts and alcoholics in the inner city were voting a straight Democrat ticket.
By 1997, the Republican Congress was trying to stop the incredible increase in "entitlements" that came about merely by redefining "disabled" to include those who choose a destructive, immoral life-style and want to continue it with taxes paid by you and me. Naturally, they were accused of racism.
Johnson tried to protest that the reason why blacks were so strongly supporting Clinton was that they DID identify with Clinton and, because they felt he was "black like them" they would always come to his defense. Bob Novak reminded him that blacks did not "come to the defense" of Clarence Thomas when he was being pilloried by Anita Hill. Apparently, Johnson believed that was "different."
Why would Bill Clinton, a man who has disgraced the Oval Office with his lies and his predatory sex, be "adopted" as a black, whereas Clarence Thomas, a man who should have been hailed as a great role model for his achievements, be the target of a liberal effort to destroy him?
That’s not hard to analyze, actually. If the black people of America as a group ever turn to doers like Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, and Colin Powell to be their true leaders, rather than whiners like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Maxine Waters, they will become successful, rather than unsuccessful as a race. Then, the white liberals who lie, and manipulate them for their own gain, like Bill Clinton, could not depend on their mindless support and votes.
And, that would undermine the liberal drive for control and power over the "poor" and the "blacks."
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com