Transcription
Thank you Madam President. Ladies gentlemen, thank you all for attending. It is in more than interesting proposition that America is institutionally racist, and before I address the narrative, the emotions, the misconceptions, the missing facts, or badly applied facts, that have been put out here tonight. I’d like to start with a simple quote.
“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their job. There is a certain class of race problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well.” That was said by Booker T Washington.
This is an esteemed body, one that sponsors and invites debate. Yet just an hour or so ago, someone who was invited to this body to test his mettle, a chief person to the right hand of Barack Obama, to the right-hand of Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, too, in many ways as he puts it, the right side of the blacks in America, Al Sharpton, accepted, and then refused, to come and debate for this body. Attorney General Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States, said that America is a nation of cowards, what it comes to race. In fact, what we stand here and do today, and want someone like Al Sharpton does not do, shows that the cowardice lies with those who would push a narrative, demand retribution when none is required, but do not show up to face the public, either those who support them or detractors. Why is that important to what we do here today? It has been said before, but I will repeat it, the proposition that America is institutionally racist requires that something creates an environment, two things create an environment for slavery or racism and they are needed for it to exist. One is a social contract, as in the South during slavery, two codified law. Neither of those things exist in American culture today, and in fact, if they did exist as such, then the UK would also be guilty of same. The British social attitudes survey of 20, 2001, 25% of Brits are very or little prejudiced against people of other races. In 2013 30% of Brits are very little prejudiced or little prejudiced against people of other races. I also reject that, because it is a survey, it is a poll. It is not a reflection of British Community nor is it a reflection of the American community. The issues of racism and prejudice will always exist, that is something we can stay honestly and factually. It is how we get to the solutions that matter. Abraham Lincoln, is my colleague said, fought a war preserve the union. That Republic allowed for the people of the United States, under our constitution, to amend it, there for removing slavery and then moving forward to the voting and Civil Rights Act and also the suffrage movement for women. These are great acts in our society.
The issues that plagued blacks in America, or anyone who is disadvantaged, have too many factors for me to address in 8 minutes or 8 hours, but in our society we continue to address them with actions, not with narrative, not with conspiracy theories about DEA creating drugs, or not with conspiracy theories about agencies forming groups to go after blacks in some way. There are many examples I can counter, one by the way by one of the speakers, just for a point of information. George Zimmerman was not a police officer there for you should use a better example. Using wrong examples to present an argument leads us nowhere forward. I understand the emotion, and I respect by opposition, but when you go into the areas of making false charges and living in the past, you do not address the issues of the present. In the present, and factually so, when you can do the research regardless, this is not a political issue, it is not a one or the other issue, is a very complex nuanced issue. If you find it in your heart that America is not advanced as a nation, then you must accept that Britain is not advance as a nation. That all of the world, in the first world, is not advanced in any manner. Therefore you must accept that all is static and societies never change for the better or the worse. To anyone who believes that America is institutionally racist, I’ll challenge you to do this. Go into communities and deal with problems by examining the roots of those problems, the foundations. The foundation of many problems starts with the individual and there are factors. There are factors of education and it is right to say that there are disadvantaged people in America. 13% of the population is black, 17% Hispanic, majority white and mix all the race, Asian at 3%, but when you took, take a look at the problem, you must address the foundation and the factors. Education, a family structure. In the 1960’s 80-plus % of blacks were two parent homes. Today that is reversed, completely the other way. It has a lot of factors which includes entitlement systems, the growth of liberalism to a point of progressivism beyond any imagined course. Education comes from a strong or blended family unit, that is your best path to success. And when it comes to single parentage of anyone of any ethnicity, a single mother has a higher likelihood significantly of being in poverty therefore raising a child in poverty. I’m addressing foundation because it is easy to argue as my colleagues have the emotion, the misapplication of facts, and the narratives. But if we do not address the foundation of a problem, and we have in America, we will not advance as a society, and to correct a misspeak by my colleague Charlie Wolf, he tried to correct himself in amongst the cheers and the jeers. He meant to say America is not perfect, but working towards a more perfect union. And that is something we can all take as human beings, look for solutions, do not fall into false claims, do not follow charlatans, do not follow shakedown artist who wants a drawing you into arguments, rather than have true debate on substance, and that is what we’re here to do. I thank you for the invitation. I thank you for having me, and I want to leave you with this thought.
We talked about skin color. Our skin is not an is an organ, it does not think, it does not formulate ideas, it is merely the genetic results of our parents. Our ability to use our brain and reason in a free society, such as in America, is why we have overturned the blight and the negative aftermath of racism that began with Colonial slavery. America is the land of opportunity as promised in our Declaration of Independence and preserved legally, legally in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We have amended our Constitution and we have evolved as a nation. Our people stand proud to support and defend opportunity and freedom for all. Thank you President Wheaton. Thank you to the members of this body, my colleagues and my opposition.
