The warped psychology of reparations
The “Victimhood Sweepstakes” carnival is sweeping the nation, soon to come to a city near you.
In Philadelphia, the sweepstakes carnival arrived last year when the formation of the Reparations Task Force was announced in November 2023. City Council approved the resolution on June 22, 2023. Councilmember Kendra Brooks (At-Large), a member of the Working Families [socialist] party was happy with the vote, declaring, “Every day we see the ongoing imprint of slavery and racist policies on the people of Philadelphia.”
Brooks’ statement is a mouthful, since “racist policies” in a city that, according to 2021 census, has a black population at about 40% with whites registering at 33.8% is tantamount to a myth. Philadelphia City Council is nearly all black; the mayor is black; blacks if anything have a smoother escalator ride to “success” in Philadelphia than at any time in history.
The black population also continues to grow exponentially. A mere 16 years ago my Old Richmond neighborhood was predominately white. Local businesses were all staffed by whites and blacks rarely had a presence here. Today, those stats have been turned around. Whites are increasingly becoming the minority. Ride the Market-Frankford El to the 69th Street Transportation Center and you’ll see that 90% of the riders are black.
Philadelphia is a black city. To call the city racist is tantamount to calling it self-hating and masochistic.
With that said, because Council member Brooks said what she said, I felt a need to examine my conscience and search for overt racism in the City of Brotherly Love. I must report, however, that any evidence of racism in the city’s institutions or streets was hard to find despite my donning a Sherlock Holmes cap and magnifying glass.
Yes, even in that imaginary get-up, I found nothing. Whites in Philadelphia, if anything, bend over backwards to do and say things to their fellow black residents to prove that they haven’t a racist bone in their body. I see this sort of thing on a daily basis.
A black homeless guy asks for money and is accorded a softer treatment from whites—he gets the cash—than a homeless white Irishman would get—because, you know, the latter is supposed “to know better and get a job.”
Sexism- and misogyny-obsessed twenty-something white girls in revealing skin tight shorts and minimalist tops “tolerate” or smile back when a black man whistles at them or makes a sexually suggestive comment. Those smiles evaporate quickly when a white construction worker adopts this sort of behavior. To correct a black man in public is a racist act.
Not so long ago, I heard a story about how a white progressive millennial neighborhood woman discovered that a black homeless man had broken into her car and was attempting to steal it, but rather than call the police, she asked the man if he was hungry and when he said he was, she brought him out some food and fed him.
One thing is perfectly clear: there is no inherent or “systematic” racism in Philadelphia, at least the way people like Kendra Brooks are claiming.
But it’s not only Kendra Brooks. Council-member Jamie Gauthier (3rd District), announced in 2023 that, “Until we look into our past with the determination to uncover the entire truth—no matter how ugly or scary that truth may be – our nation’s original sin will continue to toxify the present and future. This work is for our people, by our people.”
Gauthier then urged black Philadelphians to apply to join the Reparations Task Force “as we examine our past and shape the future.”
Shape-shifting the “future” will not be settled by Reparations. The “original sin of slavery,” as race-card progressives like to say, will always demand further correctives. If reparations ever become the law of the land, after that we will see additional demands put on municipal and state governments to eradicate the nation’s “original sin.” The progressive agenda is a living, breathing entity that requires constant feeding—a bottomless Venus Fly Trap– because its work is never done. --->READ MORE HERE
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