Friday Night Reflection

I grew up in Mobile Alabama in the 1960's and was raised to respect and identify with the struggle of Blacks for equality. Our family was unusual that way, especially in the deep South at that time. I remember my grandfather, a religious man, would not tolerate any kind of derogatory language of blacks in his presence, even if in light-hearted jest, and he was the first to hire black engineers in the deep south, a move that created tension and hostile phone calls to his home. It was only years later, reflecting back, that I am able to truly appreciate what a principled and decent man he was, and can only hope to live up to his example.

I am truly perplexed at how so many blacks have since adopted the Democratic party as their ideological home. The Democratic party was the party of slavery, and later the party of Jim Crow. Indeed, every single KKK segregationist in the South was a Democrat (most people forget this). Sheriff Bull Conner and everyone like him were card carrying Democrats. Republicans waged a great war at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives to establish that slavery would not stand in America. Republicans voted proportionally in higher numbers for the 1964 Civil Rights act than did Democrats. That legacy alone should be enough to cause every African American to pause and reflect.

In the song above, Sam Cooke expresses the powerful desire for basic dignity that was so wrongly denied of an entire people because of race. African America's truly share a unique history in America. It's a shame that in our grievance-culture, so many other groups like CAIR and NOW and La Raza have hitched an undeserving "victimization" ride on the African American experience, cheapening it in the process.