Victimhood

This is one of the right wings more persuasive arguments. We want to believe that America has changed and we want to believe that we have changed. We want to believe that we as a nation have moved on past racism. That we've cured ourselves of this cancer.

But Blacks and other minorities keep complaining about unfair treatment. Why is that? If we've fixed our problems why do we keep hearing them? Well because Blacks and other minorities are pretending to be victims to get some sort of special treatment. See how emotionally satisfying that argument is? You aren't the problem; Black people complaining are the problem.

This argument gets expression in Dennis Prager's latest article.

To an ever greater extent, schools and the news media do the same thing to African-Americans -- tell them over and over that they are oppressed. And the effects have been even more corrosive. Just think of the wildly enthusiastic receptions the NAACP gave to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the black members of Trinity United Church of Christ gave to Father Michael Pfleger when he spoke of America being "the greatest sin against God" because it is so racist. The number of blacks who perceive of their lives as oppressed by whites can only lead to estrangement from the greater American society, not to mention anger toward and resentment of it.

That last line is particularly interesting. Either there are still racial problems in our society or their aren't. If we have solved our nations racial problems, than the line makes perfect sense. Black people should just get over the problems of the past and accept that nowadays things are fine racially speaking. Dwelling on imagined slights will just hurt them and hurt us.

But if there are still racial problems in America, well, that's just an encouragemen t for Blacks to accept "their place" in society. Which is probably a bigger problem than some white people being frustrated that solutions haven't been found yet.