Robert C. Byrd and the Eskimo Pie ...

One is racist. The other is not. 

Which is which?  It depends on who is deciding. 

The late Senator Robert C. Byrd was a Klan organizer – or Kleagle – who worked as a young man to recruit new members to the Klan in West Virginia.  For his efforts in setting up a 150-member local Klan chapter he was elected leader, or Exalted Cyclops. 

Despite the rumors, he never was a Grand Wizard.  Just an Exalted Cyclops. 

An avid segregationist, Byrd opposed integrating the armed forces and once wrote:

“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

He also filibustered against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He is also the only Senator to oppose the only two black nominees to the Supreme Court. 

By most of today’s politically correct standards, he’d be considered a racist. His portraits and statues everywhere would be at least defaced and probably destroyed by BLM supporters.  But his name is on almost everything that doesn’t move in West Virginia – schools, highways, public buildings, etc. – and his statues and portraits are still up.

What’s saved his legacy?  He later became a liberal Democrat. This single act of contrition changed everything.  His racist and segregationist past no longer mattered.  He had evolved. Or as Joe Biden said at his funeral, “moved to the good side.”

In fact, at Byrd’s funeral, Biden praised him as someone who “elevated the Senate.” 

A former KKK recruiter? A former head of a local Klan chapter? Someone who once called blacks “race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wild” and people who he’d rather “die a thousand times” than serve beside? That’s Robert C. Byrd.  

Nothing to see here, right? Besides, that happened years ago. Why dwell on it now? 

Now consider the Eskimo Pie.  It was created in the 1920s.  In all the years since then, I doubt any Eskimo has ever claimed to be offended by the name.  I haven’t heard or seen anything about an Eskimo Lives Matter movement.  Still, the current owners of the Eskimo Pie brand have preemptively decided the name of the frozen delight is racially insensitive.  

So it must be changed.

To be completely honest, I didn’t know they were even making it anymore.  But soon, its racially tinged name will be banished forever.  Eskimos everywhere should rejoice. 

Don’t you feel better?  I know I’ll sleep better at night. 

If you’re wondering why there’s so much cultural insanity right now, this is a perfect example. 

A proven racist like Byrd is celebrated.  Meanwhile, George Washington, the father of our country, is reviled. So is Thomas Jefferson. All because they owned slaves centuries ago. 

Byrd remained a member of the KKK into the early 1940s. And a segregationist into the 1950s and 60s. Then again, so were most of his southern Democrat peers.   

Yet Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves, recently had his monument defaced. Now there’s a move to remove a landmark 1876 statue of Lincoln and a freed slave.  (The statue was funded entirely by grateful freed slaves back then.)    

Mobs have also attacked monuments to U.S. Grant, the Union general who defeated the Confederacy and who as President pushed through reforms that gave former slaves the right to vote. A statue of a noted abolitionist who gave his life to end slavery was torn down by the same mobs protesting past and current racial injustice in America.  

Nancy Pelosi has taken it upon herself to remove portraits of past Speakers of the House who supported slavery more than 150 years ago.  She’s also pushed for the removal of statues of the now politically incorrect – in hindsight – from the House.  

She thinks this will appease the BLM folks; she’s hoping maybe they won’t come after her and Democrats if she blackwashes American history by removing a few portraits and statues they wouldn’t like. She doesn’t understand that none of the BLM folks know anything about American history, much less about the people who were in those portraits and embodied in statues.

The destruction has nothing to do with righting wrongs. It’s all about intimidation. As one BLM leader admitted recently, if all of BLM’s demands aren’t met – and the list is ridiculous, including massive reparations to blacks and the end of prisons – they plan to burn the system down. 

The intimidation is working.  It’s obviously being felt by corporate weasels preemptively altering brand names and packaging to avoid offending anyone at all, especially anyone of color. I suppose that’s how the Eskimo Pie brand got on the chopping block. 

The death toll for brand names and characters is staggering and continues to grow.

No more Aunt Jemima (even though she was based on a real black person).

No more Uncle Ben. 

No more Cream of Wheat “Chef.”

No more Land O’Lakes Indian maiden.

No more Mrs. Butterworth (somebody said the bottles were shaped like a “mammy").

And of course, no more Eskimo Pie.

There will be more.  And I can guarantee it will get sillier and sillier as timid brand managers try to kiss up to the loonies demanding an end to what they perceive as hurtful stereotyping.

It’s like the days when people saw subliminal messaging and images in ads. Or thought they did. They saw suggestive images in liquor ad ice cubes. Or in pipe or cigarette smoke curling up.  Or in soda or champagne bubbles. Or in the reflection from a shiny new car.

People looking hard enough will always see what they want to see. 

They also won’t see what they don’t want to see. Like the history of racism of the Democrat Party, its role in Jim Crow laws and suppression of black votes, and of Klansmen like Robert Byrd. 

Or the condescending racism by the media and Democrats in plain view every day.  It’s the worst kind racism: the kind that implies blacks aren’t really able to make it on their own – they simply can’t compete or succeed educationally or economically without government assistance and special consideration to "level the playing field." 

In short, what they are saying is that blacks can’t be held to the same standards as everyone else. Blacks just aren’t up to the challenge.   

That’s real racism.  It should appall every thinking person of any color.      

Appeasing the barbarians ...

Suddenly, everybody is apologizing. 

Celebrities. Politicians. Pro athletes. Coaches.  Generals.  Police chiefs.  Heads of state. 

They can’t say enough how sorry they are.

I’m not sure that they’re all apologizing for.  But they want everyone to know how sincere they are.  Especially blacks. They want everyone – all the PC-approved “victim” classes – to know that they are ashamed of being white and for not speaking out about this before now.    

And for not paying much more attention to the needs and problems of black people.  Because black lives matter – in fact, black lives must matter more than any other lives.  Black lives matter more than police lives, crime victims’ lives, and business owners’ lives. Even when those police, crime victims, and business owners happen to be black, too.   

Black lives matter only when the BLM folks decide who qualifies. For instance, blacks killed in Chicago and elsewhere by other blacks don’t matter.  Black police killed by blacks don’t matter. Black owners of businesses looted and burned by blacks don’t matter. 

You won’t see BLM supporters protesting blacks killing blacks, blacks killing black police, blacks destroying black-owned businesses, and burning down black neighborhoods. 

That’s because, despite the name of the organization, only some black lives matter.       

BLM made George Floyd’s one of the lives that matter.  Not because he was anything special – far from it.  He was a career criminal high on meth and fentanyl and carrying drugs when last arrested, but because his death came at the hands of white cops he became a martyr. 

There’s little doubt those cops caused his death. There’s also little doubt at least one of them did it intentionally. There’s video of that cop refusing other officers’ requests that he stop kneeling on Floyd’s neck, even after they couldn’t find a pulse.  That’s murder in my opinion. 

We all know precisely who was responsible for Floyd’s death.  Those particular cops.  Not all other cops.  Not the rest of America.  Not all white people. 

And most certainly not me. 

I’m sorry he died.  That’s all I got.  That’s not enough for a lot of folks.  Too bad. 

I won’t apologize for something I never did, wouldn’t do, and had no part in.  It may make some people feel virtuous to apologize for being white and to confess their sin of white privilege, but I can’t bring myself to do that.

Because for me it would be bald-faced lie.  I’m not sorry for something I didn’t do. I won’t accept blame for things over which I personally had no control, just to appease someone else.     

I can’t apologize for being white; I had no choice of in the matter. My parents were white, their parents were white, and I’d bet my great grandparents were white as well.  You don’t have to be a Nobel-winning geneticist to figure the odds I’d be white, too.  As far as I can tell, nobody in my family ever owned slaves or participated in the slave trade, either. I’m positive I never did.

I always went to integrated public schools, both in Miami and in New Jersey.  My public university was integrated.  I never lived or went to school in an intentionally segregated environment. 

I can’t honestly say some of my best friends growing up or in college were black. They weren’t.  My best friends were white. I suspect most of the black kids’ best friends were black.

In my career, I worked with many black professionals, men and women, as clients.  I genuinely enjoyed working with them.  Some came to my house for purely social events; we also often sat together at their companies’ celebrations.  We had a lot of heart to heart conversations well beyond business matters on all manner of topics.  But curiously, never about race. 

Their race and my race were a given.  And wholly irrelevant to our relationship.

I guess what I’m getting to is that I’m not blind to someone’s race – that would be a ridiculous thing to say.  But it doesn’t make that much of a difference to me.  I don’t care what race anyone is. Unfortunately, that makes some folks today very angry.  Again, too bad. 

Shameless groveling doesn’t suit me either.  It’s one thing to beg for forgiveness if you are at fault and you’re truly sorry.  It’s quite another if you’ve done nothing wrong. That’s just stupid. 

If you think unwarranted apologizing and groveling will appease someone or some group that’s threatening you, you are an idiot.  A spineless pussy. A patsy. Cringing and groveling don't make bullies suddenly like you; it does the opposite – they despise you for your weakness and know they can get whatever they want from you, anytime they like.  They own you. 

Until you stand up and confront them head on – call their bluff and fight back if necessary – you’ll always be their bitch.  They’ll humiliate you time and time again to prove it.   

I refuse to play this game.  That puts me out of the social and political mainstream at present.  

Watching celebrities, politicians and other public figures abase themselves to appease barbarians disgusts me.  Pretending wholesale pillaging, looting, destruction of property and violence against innocents is nothing more than a peaceful protest is insane; it’s the work of barbarians. It’s not being done in the service of a noble and just cause.  It’s an attempt to intimidate, bully, and see how much they can extort from all of us before we fight back. 

Unfortunately, so far it’s working pretty well for the bullies. That's disheartening.     

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m simply not comfortable appeasing bullies of any kind, particularly now, even though a lot of other folks think that’s acceptable.

I can’t do it.  It goes against my principles, and my self-respect.

I am sorry about one thing: that so many among us seem to have neither anymore. 

You can get off your knees now ...

It’s time for everyone to get off their knees.

What happened to George Floyd was bad. The cops involved have been arrested and charged.  They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  I’m sure they will be. 

Since everyone seems to be in complete agreement with the above, why aren’t the protests drawing to an end?  Why are the BLM folks planning even more?

It’s because the protests aren’t really about Floyd. Or justice.  The protests may have started that way, but after more than two weeks of nonstop protests, and the charging of the officers, it’s now about something well beyond the terrible death of Floyd. 

So what are they about?  What do the protestors want? Perhaps to be more to the point, what do the people trying to keep the protests going want?      

Nobody can really define precisely what the protestors want. The protestors can’t either.

They want their voices to be heard.  They say they are demanding an end to racial injustice. An end to racial inequality.  An end to systemic racism in America.  Okay. We’ve all heard all that. 

At the risk of belaboring the blindingly obvious, who wouldn’t want those things? Who would be in favor of racial injustice, racial inequality, and systemic racism?  Nobody sane.   

But there’s scant evidence that any of those are as pervasive as BLM and the protestors claim.  If anything, the preponderance of factual evidence supports just the opposite. The overwhelming majority of Americans are not racist.  Nor is the justice system racist.

Are there racists still among us? Sure.  There are racists in every race, including among blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans – whites don’t have a corner on racism.  There always will be racists; no amount of mass protesting will ever change their minds.

The reality is there aren’t that many of them anymore. Seriously, there aren’t.   

There are still some in police departments, but I’d suggest that’s a much smaller number than BLM and the media want us to believe. There’s certainly no evidence at all that racism is pervasive in routine policing by police departments across the nation. Police go where crime is, and unfortunately that’s most often in black communities, especially in urban settings.

That’s not to say there aren’t high-profile racists out there. We all know who they are.      

Some like Ralph Northam are leading states.  Some like Bill DeBlasio are leading cities. Some, like Ilhan Omar, AOC, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Talib, are actually sitting members of Congress, which baffles me.  Some, like race baiter, fraudster and tax-cheat Al Sharpton, always seem to be on TV and taken seriously.  Some like Jerimiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan are in church pulpits.   

if you view everything only through the lens of race you are a racist. If you judge people and their motives by their race alone, you’re a racist.  

All of those I named above fit that description. 

In fact, by that standard I’d wager there are more racists in BLM and in the people carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs than in all the police departments in the entire country.

The BLM leaders and others leading the protests, know this.  That’s why if you ask them to provide evidence that Americans are consciously engaging in any of what they’re striving to end, they’re lost.  They can only cite outcomes as proof these exist.  

A higher percentage of blacks than whites in prison. Far lower average wealth in black households than white households. Higher unemployment among blacks than whites.  

Now, all these things are true.  But the reason for these outcomes most often has less to do with racial injustice, racial inequality, or systemic racism  than with other causes.

Like the breakdown of the nuclear family in black communities – only about 29% of blacks are married compared to about 48% of whites.  Like the much higher percentage (over 75%) of black children born to single mothers, compared to 30% for whites. 

Like the fact that blacks account for 13% of the population but 52% of homicides, and 38.5% of all violent crimes according to FBI stats. 

If anyone does the math, it should not be surprising that blacks are about 40% of our prison population. They aren’t there because of racial injustice, however, or targeting by police, but for the simple reason that they commit more violent crimes.     

At any time, about 25% of all black males have been, or currently are, in the justice system.  That means there are fewer black males out there to serve as responsible role models for younger blacks; more black males with a criminal record.    

And black males missing by incarceration means more single-parent households, which can have a harder time raising and supporting children. It also means those same black males with a criminal record have a harder time getting a good job or moving up the economic ladder.

All this ripples through everything in the black experience and is a major reason why the black community has seemingly permanent impediments to escaping poverty and crime.

Yet the protests are not about any of this.  Nor about the fact that over 90% of murdered blacks were killed by other blacks. Nor that the leading cause of death for black teenage males is murder.  Nor the fact that police killings of unarmed blacks are fewer than a dozen a year; more unarmed whites than blacks are killed by police each year.  

These stats are well known.  But also widely ignored or buried.

So what are the protests over Floyd really about? 

One word: intimidation.  

And to a large degree, it’s working. They’ve managed to get Senators, Representatives, governors, police chiefs, National Guard, pro athletes, and vast numbers of others to kneel in submission to them. 

It’s been embarrassing to watch, because the whole “movement” has been a fraud, starting with the canonization of George Floyd. 

Mr. Floyd was a career criminal who once participated in a home invasion and held a gun to the belly of the pregnant black woman while his pals ransacked her home looking for money and drugs. He had multiple arrests on his record and spent years in prison for everything from assault to drug possession with intent to distribute. 

When he was arrested this last time, and as it turns out his final time, it was for trying to pass a forged $20 bill while he was high on meth and fentanyl. Yes, those both showed up in the toxicology reports from both his autopsies – but you’d never find that from media reports.

It’s been carefully hidden from the thousands marching to honor him.  Instead, we’re continually told by morons in the media and BLM types, race hustlers like Sharpton, as well as Floyd’s family, that he was a good man, a pillar of the community, and was turning his life around. 

No, he wasn’t any of that. He was a common criminal. He didn’t deserve to die as he did, but he’s not up there with Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr.  Not even close. It’s disgusting to see people abase themselves at the altar of a criminal like Floyd.

It's even more appalling to hear our politicians and celebrities kissing up to something they know is an outright fraud. And trust me, they know it’s all a fraud.  The only reason they are sucking up to this is they’re afraid of the mob; they are afraid to speak out for fear people won’t like them.  In that regard, BLM and the protestors’ goal of intimidation has succeeded. 

It’s empowered them to demand more. Kneeling’s not enough anymore. Now that they’ve got politicians, celebrities, the media, over-the-hill lefties, young white guys with man-buns and tats, and rich white girls trying to act “street,” on their knees, they want more.

Like getting rid of the police.  I think they’re just trying to see how far they can push their power.  Testing behavior, in other words. But of course the Democrat Party, never one to miss the opportunity to pander shamelessly, is starting to support this numbskull idea.   

Suddenly, everyone has to believe in Black Lives Matter. Or else.   

Everyone but me, I guess. I believe black lives matter as much as white lives, Asian lives, Hispanic lives and others, but no more than those other lives matter.  I simply can’t accept the BLM movement at face value.     

If Black Lives Matter, then why do only blacks shot be police, and not blacks shot by other blacks matter?  If Black Lives Matter so much, then why did 18 blacks die in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, with another 85 shot, and the black mayor says she has everything under control?  If Black Lives Matter, why is okay to loot and burn down black-owned businesses, and torch black neighborhoods – to protest racial inequality? 

It time to get off your knees, everyone.  Stop buying the BS that this matters.  That by kowtowing to the mob they will like you. That you have something to be guilty about. 

It doesn’t. They won’t. And you don’t. Stop embarrassing yourselves.