Unlike most who read this, I've played the role of the minority, and the role of being raised in poverty and the role of being homeless for an extended period of time.
From age 5 to 11, I was in the heart of one of the two then-predominantly black populated areas of Seattle, also known as Capitol Hill. From age 12 to 15, I was in the other, in the Rainier Valley.
I attended a particularly hellish elementary school, T.T. Minor, in the vicinity of 18th Avenue and Union. The junior high school, Sharples, and the high school, Franklin, weren't a hell of a lot better.
And I was a part of the tiny white minority. And my "white privilege" availed me nothing there.
But it did give me an early clue to racism and injustice. Except I, of course, was on the receiving end.
Today, we have an entire race that has been inculcated with the bizarre idea that they have no control over the choices they make and their station in life, whatever that may be, is never a result of their decisions as much as it's a result of their skin color.
Even the children of multi-millionaires of color believe that garbage.
Unlike most who read this, I am the product of poverty. A scion of the welfare state, my childhood was poor and filled with "can't affords."
Government commodities were a history lesson; they were our survival. Meanwhile, my mom put herself through Edison Technical School, now known as Seattle Community College, and became an LPN, then the lowest rung on the medical field ladder.
But the job never paid all that well, and her lot in life as a single mom with 3 kids festered.
And what has my "#whiteprivilege" gotten me?
Well, there's a system out there that can be used to pay for an advanced education: I used it (yes, it was the Army) got my GED in basic training (before my Senior Class year in high school actually started and I have since graduated from Battle Ground, Class of 2009) and used those VA benefits to ultimately get my BA degree in Government (Political Science) from Eastern. I also worked full time for three years and went to school full time. Made the Dean's List most of the time... did very well in school, actually... Phi Eta Sigma (Freshman Honor Society) Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science Honor Society) Phi Theta Kappa (National Junior College Honor Society) and so forth.
But I've also known homelessness in the early 90's... living in my car and a gas station for about 3 years.
There's no telling how many are out there like me. And in all that time, I never asked the government for help. I thought about it, but couldn't even force myself.
I simply couldn't conceive of it.
Ultimately, I knew that I was the most responsible for my lot in life and it was up to me to get out of that hole.
So, my #whiteprivlege got me an upbringing on welfare and ultimately, homelessness.
As I look back on my life, I have long since known and rejected the seduction of just saying the "hell with it," and giving in to the weakness of self-loathing and victimization.
Staying alive is hard. The alternative is easy.
But I also realized that no one owed me a thing outside the alleged contractual obligations incurred from my government in return for my enlistment.
Oddly, my life has taught me that I have been given nothing.
But I was able to pull myself out of poverty and now have a life of possessions... I also have the best wife in the world who has helped me so much to overcome my demons... and none of it is because I happened to win the genetic lottery of the right skin tone.
So, when I see this racist bigotry of #blacklivesmatter, it has the exact opposite impact on me.
I start at the baseline that skin color has never been the basis for the value of life.
But I also realize that what we're seeing now is a latter-day version of Nazism as practiced by the #blacklivesmatter crew... brought about by a leadership of a nation that has allowed "victimization" to rot us all to our very core.
Racism is racism. When whites practice racial superiority based on skin color, that is somehow a "bad" thing.
But when blacks vote as a block merely and entirely based on the skin color of a candidate, that is somehow less so.
Why?
Now we see blacks calling for the murder of whites. We see black studies classes in our schools... do you think for one moment that they discuss how to better themselves in those classes?
We see Black Student Unions and the Black Congressional Caucus... can you imagine the outcry and condemnation of a "White Congressional Caucus?" And have we SEEN the condemnation of White Student Unions?
Of course we have, but who can blame these kids for wanting their piece of the taxpayer pie based entirely on their skin color?
Equality demands no less.
But the equality the #BLM people want is of the situational variety. And who do we blame for that? How do we fix it?
And when they threaten people or hurt people merely because of their genetics... who are they emulating?
How long does government put up with this sort of thing before they act?
Blacks are slaughtering blacks at an unprecedented rate. Twenty being killed in Chicago is frequently called "Saturday."
And where's their outrage about that? Where's their riots over that? Where's their demands over that?
Oh.
Sorry.
I forgot, for a moment, that blacks killing blacks isn't their fault.
I live in a state that has shown the common sense of getting rid of race-based advantages for any color through I-200 in the government/education sector. And while those inculcated with guilt like our local version of Pravda Izvestia predicted the end of the world if that effort passed, they've been proven wrong... repeatedly.
Yet, situational ethics have even permeated the NFL, where, if you have a coaching position open, you MUST interview a black candidate, even if you have no intention of hiring them... all in the name of diversity.
OK... swell. Why isn't that a requirement for players?
Does the NFL require a white player to try out for every position during every training camp?
No?
Why not? The majority of NFL players are black... yet they represent roughly 13% or so of the population if memory serves. So, what about the diversity of the players?
No one cares about that.
Situational equality is much like situational ethics. In this country, what we call "equality" dishonors the meaning of the word.
Back in the early 80's, for example, I took the Seattle Police Department hiring test. There were about 150 or so applicants if i recall correctly; I came in 12th.
When the hiring list came out, I was 36th.
Why?
Because the way AA worked back then, the top scoring white applicant was going to be rated 3rd behind the top scoring minority applicant and the top scoring female applicant.
So, before they got to me, they would have had to hire 24 applicants who did not score as well as I did on the test.
Of course, I studied my ass off and researched all of it to the max to fully prepare myself for this effort... but hey. you know how it goes.
So, no. #BlackLivesMatter, they no longer do, to me. PARTICULARLY when they don't matter to other blacks. And racist bigotry is racist bigotry, no matter the source or the color of the adherent.
And every time one of these punks pulls anything race-based... the result for me is one of an even lesser perspective of their value.
From age 5 to 11, I was in the heart of one of the two then-predominantly black populated areas of Seattle, also known as Capitol Hill. From age 12 to 15, I was in the other, in the Rainier Valley.
I attended a particularly hellish elementary school, T.T. Minor, in the vicinity of 18th Avenue and Union. The junior high school, Sharples, and the high school, Franklin, weren't a hell of a lot better.
And I was a part of the tiny white minority. And my "white privilege" availed me nothing there.
But it did give me an early clue to racism and injustice. Except I, of course, was on the receiving end.
Today, we have an entire race that has been inculcated with the bizarre idea that they have no control over the choices they make and their station in life, whatever that may be, is never a result of their decisions as much as it's a result of their skin color.
Even the children of multi-millionaires of color believe that garbage.
Unlike most who read this, I am the product of poverty. A scion of the welfare state, my childhood was poor and filled with "can't affords."
Government commodities were a history lesson; they were our survival. Meanwhile, my mom put herself through Edison Technical School, now known as Seattle Community College, and became an LPN, then the lowest rung on the medical field ladder.
But the job never paid all that well, and her lot in life as a single mom with 3 kids festered.
And what has my "#whiteprivilege" gotten me?
Well, there's a system out there that can be used to pay for an advanced education: I used it (yes, it was the Army) got my GED in basic training (before my Senior Class year in high school actually started and I have since graduated from Battle Ground, Class of 2009) and used those VA benefits to ultimately get my BA degree in Government (Political Science) from Eastern. I also worked full time for three years and went to school full time. Made the Dean's List most of the time... did very well in school, actually... Phi Eta Sigma (Freshman Honor Society) Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science Honor Society) Phi Theta Kappa (National Junior College Honor Society) and so forth.
But I've also known homelessness in the early 90's... living in my car and a gas station for about 3 years.
There's no telling how many are out there like me. And in all that time, I never asked the government for help. I thought about it, but couldn't even force myself.
I simply couldn't conceive of it.
Ultimately, I knew that I was the most responsible for my lot in life and it was up to me to get out of that hole.
So, my #whiteprivlege got me an upbringing on welfare and ultimately, homelessness.
As I look back on my life, I have long since known and rejected the seduction of just saying the "hell with it," and giving in to the weakness of self-loathing and victimization.
Staying alive is hard. The alternative is easy.
But I also realized that no one owed me a thing outside the alleged contractual obligations incurred from my government in return for my enlistment.
Oddly, my life has taught me that I have been given nothing.
But I was able to pull myself out of poverty and now have a life of possessions... I also have the best wife in the world who has helped me so much to overcome my demons... and none of it is because I happened to win the genetic lottery of the right skin tone.
So, when I see this racist bigotry of #blacklivesmatter, it has the exact opposite impact on me.
I start at the baseline that skin color has never been the basis for the value of life.
But I also realize that what we're seeing now is a latter-day version of Nazism as practiced by the #blacklivesmatter crew... brought about by a leadership of a nation that has allowed "victimization" to rot us all to our very core.
Racism is racism. When whites practice racial superiority based on skin color, that is somehow a "bad" thing.
But when blacks vote as a block merely and entirely based on the skin color of a candidate, that is somehow less so.
Why?
Now we see blacks calling for the murder of whites. We see black studies classes in our schools... do you think for one moment that they discuss how to better themselves in those classes?
We see Black Student Unions and the Black Congressional Caucus... can you imagine the outcry and condemnation of a "White Congressional Caucus?" And have we SEEN the condemnation of White Student Unions?
Of course we have, but who can blame these kids for wanting their piece of the taxpayer pie based entirely on their skin color?
Equality demands no less.
But the equality the #BLM people want is of the situational variety. And who do we blame for that? How do we fix it?
And when they threaten people or hurt people merely because of their genetics... who are they emulating?
How long does government put up with this sort of thing before they act?
Blacks are slaughtering blacks at an unprecedented rate. Twenty being killed in Chicago is frequently called "Saturday."
And where's their outrage about that? Where's their riots over that? Where's their demands over that?
Oh.
Sorry.
I forgot, for a moment, that blacks killing blacks isn't their fault.
I live in a state that has shown the common sense of getting rid of race-based advantages for any color through I-200 in the government/education sector. And while those inculcated with guilt like our local version of Pravda Izvestia predicted the end of the world if that effort passed, they've been proven wrong... repeatedly.
Yet, situational ethics have even permeated the NFL, where, if you have a coaching position open, you MUST interview a black candidate, even if you have no intention of hiring them... all in the name of diversity.
OK... swell. Why isn't that a requirement for players?
Does the NFL require a white player to try out for every position during every training camp?
No?
Why not? The majority of NFL players are black... yet they represent roughly 13% or so of the population if memory serves. So, what about the diversity of the players?
No one cares about that.
Situational equality is much like situational ethics. In this country, what we call "equality" dishonors the meaning of the word.
Back in the early 80's, for example, I took the Seattle Police Department hiring test. There were about 150 or so applicants if i recall correctly; I came in 12th.
When the hiring list came out, I was 36th.
Why?
Because the way AA worked back then, the top scoring white applicant was going to be rated 3rd behind the top scoring minority applicant and the top scoring female applicant.
So, before they got to me, they would have had to hire 24 applicants who did not score as well as I did on the test.
Of course, I studied my ass off and researched all of it to the max to fully prepare myself for this effort... but hey. you know how it goes.
So, no. #BlackLivesMatter, they no longer do, to me. PARTICULARLY when they don't matter to other blacks. And racist bigotry is racist bigotry, no matter the source or the color of the adherent.
And every time one of these punks pulls anything race-based... the result for me is one of an even lesser perspective of their value.
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