July 08, 2007

By Peter Amherst
Copyright Peter Amherst

Mr.Bernstein's comments Comment 1. A perversion of the original Civil Rights movement on Tim Wise's article Whites Swim in Racial Preference leads one to wonder what his actual intent is. Is it to do away with all affirmative action? If so, how does this help lower income white males?

The crux of the problem - and the solution - go far deeper. It is because our society, in significant part, does not place the dignity and worth of each individual above the imperatives of money, power and greed, that we have produced a dangerously dysfunctional society. Until that imbalance is addressed, the cancers of racism, sexism, ageism etc. will only grow.

To attack these cancers, we need a variety of inter-related radiation therapies.

First,economic radiation. The obscene disparities between rich and poor need to be obliterated. When all have decent homes, schools, health care, a vast number of these cancers will automatically disappear. Harvard University, for example, is now guaranteeing free tuition to all students whose family income is less than $40,000 a year. A small step? Yes, but a significant one.

Second, this country has to come to grips with a fundamental mind-set that has infected it since its inception. Without elaborating in great detail, it was founded on the theft of property and the eradication of the existing property owners. For example, Jefferson, lauded by so many as a founding father, wrote in a private letter that he wished that he could kill all Indians. Such a killing mindset is chilling to the bone. Whites were encouraged to lend to Indians, so that they could take Indian land when the latter defaulted.

That mindset still courses through the minds and hearts of the greedy and violent. This website, dedicated to the homeowner, is witness to the ruthless and rapacious hands of those who seek to use citizens' homes as an endless revenue stream for their greedy desires.

Unless America comes to grip with this mindset, it will continue to be its own worst enemy. The harm and damage which America is doing to itself on a daily basis far exceeds what any external enemy could ever do.

Mr. Wise in his articles is doing a great public service by pointing out the hidden blinders which prevent so many white Americans from seeing the way things really are. A white American does not have to worry or think about meeting with racist attitudes as he or she walks down a street, shops, or cashes a check at a bank. Until all Americans feel the same way, America will not be truly free - or a happy and successful society.