The Negro Problem. (There! I've Said It!)

By Gary North

Remnant Review

I want to comment on an article by Fred Reed. It's on black power, or maybe Black power. I get confused on what should be capitalized these days. http://fredoneverything.net/BlackPower.shtml

Let's talk about capitalization. Most white people don't go around talking about white power. They surely don't go around talking about White power. Anybody who is white who talks about White power is likely to be associated with some variation of the White Aryan Nation movement. On the other hand, a lot of white people write "Blacks." I just noticed that when I dictated this, my copy of NaturallySpeaking automatically capitalized Blacks. I get the message!

Anyway, I want to talk about what used to be called the Negro problem. That was what Martin Luther King, Jr. called it, so it's good enough for me. However, because Malcolm X got a lot of traction from his phrase, "the so-called Negro," no one talks about the Negro problem anymore. But it surely remains a problem.

If there is a single failure in American society which everyone acknowledges is a problem, it is this one. Reed talks about it in his article. He makes the obvious point, which is not obvious to liberals, that when we have black-on-white crime, it is not discussed in this way in the media. When a group of black teenagers beats up some white man, or indulges in what has become known as flash mob violence, the perpetrators are always referred to as "teens." Every white person reading the article suspects what took place, but the reporter dares not speak the word, which is a color, and which is usually capitalized. His editor will not tolerate this.

BLACK POWER: AN OXYMORON

There is an insight, incorrectly attributed to Voltaire, that argues along these lines: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." Generally, this is a convenient piece of advice. But in this case, it does not apply.

It is quite true that the more intractable aspects of the Negro problem are not allowed to be discussed in the media, either under the rubric "Negro problem" or its variants, such as the "Blacks problem" or the "African-American problem." But this is not indicative of the power of the Negroes/Blacks/African-Americans. This is because they have little autonomous power. They are merely granted certain marginal immunities by the white Establishment. They are in fact at the bottom of the social hierarchy. They know this. They have known it for a long time. They are tired of this. The problem they now face is this: their invisibility in the media in relation to their problems, at least their self-generated problems, is a sign of their lack of power.

Nobody tells them: "You must get your house in order." This is because those with political power do not believe that (1) they have the autonomous ability to get their collective house in order, and (2) they can function without white supervision.

Does this sound like plantation politics, circa 1859? It does to me. It also does to Star Parker.

LIBERALISM IN THE INNER CITY

Here is what we are really facing. Blacks have little power. They have little power because the social order that was once the Black community has been almost destroyed by liberalism.

Read the rest here.