How did this even happen?

So, Aaron's politically right grandfather sent me (and his whole family) an email of this article by Pat Buchanan.

Um, yeah, so I don't really know how or when it happened that white people decided to turn the tables around on black people and decide that the policies we have in place to help improve the lives of African American's were racist against white people. OMG, white people have so many priveleges already! Our country is built around white people. If you are white, the US was made to give you priveledges! Sheesh! You have no trouble getting a job, no trouble getting into college and great education. But, don't let me say it. Let's see what Pat Buchanan had to say.

After reading his book, Where the Right went Wrong, I had a lot of respect for Buchanan, so I tried to read his article objectively. But, wow. If I can get past his rather racist assumption that slavery was actually GOOD for African Americans because it brought them into the US where they have it way better than they did in Africa (um, yes, dragging them forcibly from their homeland and families and bringing them over packed in tiny little cells in ships where half of them died on the way and then enslaving them with no rights, then abolishing slavery, but refusing to hire black people and sending more than 50% of black males to jail was surely a better fate than Africa) or his assumption that black people are the ONLY recipients of "’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits" maybe, just maybe I could agree that African Americans in this country have it good.

Funny, though, I know LOTS of white people who both use and abuse welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8, Pell grants, student loans (which by the way, I know almost NO white people who have these, especially me who just paid for college out of my own pocket because I'm so rich--oh wait), legal services, Medicaid, and Earned income tax credits. I can think of 3 people who are my friends who grew up in white, priveleged America--one of whom went to college and is married--who could have done without those things who abused the system. But, that's okay, because really it is Black people who are using these all up. The white people were probably taking what was theirs...

This is my favorite statement: "As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time? Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?"

It's funny, because if we assume that most black people live in poverty, which I would say is probably pretty true (because that's why, you know, they drain our society with all their government welfare and whatnot), and most white people have money or are at least wealthy or have the privileges to actually GET jobs and not have 50% of their male population in jail, precluding them from being able to get jobs when they get out, then wouldn't in make sense that, in general, POOR PEOPLE STEAL FROM RICH PEOPLE? Hmm... last I checked, the rich people didn't steal from the poor. They don't need to. So, it sorta makes sense that white, rich people, wouldn't steal from poor people of any color. Maybe poor white people steal from poor black people and that's the 3%.

Of course, I don't even know what to say to this statement: "Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse...?" Maybe black women don't report rapes from white men because they don't have the resources, or the police don't believe them or treat them like dirt. Does anyone else think this just sounds like old fashioned southern racism?

But, you know, it's clear that black people have it really easy and white people are discriminated against. I guess we should all just make sure we don't elect a black president because then white people might really have it rough. Maybe we'd have to work to help our fellow man or actually hire black people. Or maybe, we could reform some of our laws that put lots of black people in jail. Or we might have to send some black people to white schools so they can get good educations. We might have to change our thinking. Oh no! That's so racist!