“It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967

Today is the 50th anniversary of the great “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr..  This should be a day of uplifting speeches about self-empowerment and personal achievement.  We should hear speakers expand on King’s dream of a colorblind society where people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  We should hear speeches about the character traits that lead to success and we should hear warnings about the character defects that lead to failure.  We should be reminded to be grateful that we live in a land of opportunity, where people who work hard can achieve their dreams.

We should hear all that in todays speeches, but we won’t.  We will hear a series of false narratives which are actually designed to foster racial divisions and keep blacks on the Democrat Plantation.  King’s legacy has been hijacked by race hustlers who profit from racial divisions.

We will hear that Republican racism is what is keeping black people down.  Despite the fact that the KKK was closely associated with the Democrat Party and the fact that it was southern Democrats who fought for segregation to the bitter end, Republicans will be portrayed as racists who, in Joe Biden’s words, “want to keep y’all in chains”.  The nation’s only black Senator, a Republican,  was not invited to speak, nor were other prominent black conservatives.  The goal today will be to reinforce the walls around the Democrat Plantation.

We will hear that wealth inequality is the result of racism.  It has nothing to do with differing degrees of productive achievement, just racism.  We will be a racist country until everyone has equal amounts of everything.  We will hear that the failed ’War on Poverty’ must be renewed, and the entire emphasis will be on taking from the “haves”.  Those advocating increased confiscation of wealth will pretend they have the moral high ground.

We will hear that our racist culture puts large numbers of young black men in prison just because they are black.  It can’t be because they commit more crimes.  It must be the racist Republican’s fault. Or maybe it’s the cops fault.  It’s just not the criminal’s fault.  Ice Cube explains this narrative in his song, “Why We Thugs” .  He sings: “They give us guns and drugs, then wonder why in the f*ck we thugs”.  It’s always “they”.

We will hear that black failure in schools is the result of not enough money being spent.  Staggering amounts of money have been spent on black education.  It has been shown in places like Washington, DC. that spending more does not increase achievement.  Good charter schools do increase achievement, but our government does the bidding of the teachers unions, so charter schools are fought at every level.  Obama closed an excellent charter school in Washington, D.C..

The false narrative of the Zimmerman/Martin case will play a prominent role in today’s speeches.  The narrative, which bears almost no relationship to the known facts of the case, was designed to create racial animosity.  It continues to serve that ugly purpose.

One person who will speak today is a master at creating a problem and then posing as the problem solver.  It is a technic that seems to work well for him.  When the Cambridge police were called about a possible burglary at the home of black Professor Luis Gates, Gates objected to the officers insistence on seeing his identification and he was charged with disorderly conduct.  President Obama, who admitted he didn’t know all the facts, decided to inject himself into the case anyway.  He said the cops “acted stupidly” and implied that racism caused the problem.  This resulted in the “Beer Summit” where Obama posed as the great healer.

When Gabrielle Giffords was shot in 2011, another entirely inappropriate accusation was made.  Sarah Palin and talk radio were immediately blamed for the assault by the entire Democrat machine.  The story was everywhere that Gabrielle was shot because a climate of hate was created when Palin listed several Democrat districts that should be ‘targeted’ in the upcoming election.  Yes, it was just that absurd.  But this Democrat created nonsense gave the Pompous Pontificator in Chief a chance to speak to the nation as the moral healer who could absolve Palin and other hateful conservatives while pretending to be above petty partisanship.  The whole narrative was a creation of petty partisanship.  All of it, including the morally superior pose of his speech.

Obama and Eric Holder are both deeply involved in the ongoing effort to create racial animosity with the Zimmerman/Martin case.  Both behind the scenes and right out in the open, they are mining this case for all the racial division they can get out of it.  It’s called ‘securing the base’.  My guess is that Obama will use his speech today to pose as a racial healer.

He builds a fire.  He heroically arrives to put it out.

Walter Williams wrote a good column recently pondering the question of how great civil rights leaders like King would feel if they saw black culture today.  Would they be proud?  This seems like the right day to reproduce a good share of the column:

Most of the parents and civil rights leaders whose sacrifices and courage made today’s educational opportunities possible are no longer with us. My question is: If they could know what many of today’s black youngsters have done with the fruits of their sacrifice, would they be proud? Most schools identified as “persistently dangerous” are predominantly black schools. To have a modicum of safety, many schools are equipped with walk-through metal detectors, security cameras and conveyor belt X-ray machines that scan book bags and purses. Nationally, the black four-year high-school graduation rate is 52 percent. In some cities, such as Detroit and Philadelphia, it’s considerably lower — 20 percent and 24 percent, respectively. In Rochester, N.Y., it’s 9 percent.

What black politicians, parents, teachers and students have created is nothing less than a gross betrayal and squandering of the struggle paid in blood, sweat and tears by previous generations to make possible the educational opportunities that were denied to blacks for so long.       [snip]

Would those black Americans who fought tooth and nail against Jim Crow, segregation, lynching and racism be proud of the findings of a recent Rasmussen poll in which 31 percent of blacks think that most blacks are racists and 24 percent of blacks think that most whites are racists? Among whites, in the same Rasmussen poll, 38 percent consider most blacks racist, and 10 percent consider most whites racist.

Black people don’t need to have a conversation with white people on matters of race. One first step would be to develop a zero tolerance for criminal and disruptive school behavior, as well as a zero tolerance for criminal behavior in neighborhoods. If city authorities cannot or will not provide protection, then law-abiding black people should find a way to provide that protection themselves.

Amen.