Raising Cain about Race

For something like the last forty years, I have repeatedly heard about those journalists and political leaders who "speak truth to power". It always seems that this description is saved for someone leading a left wing cause, no matter how small. When the person who is speaking the truth is promoting a conservative cause against entrenched power, however, the description is remarkably less kind. A good case in point is the current reception being given to Herman Cain. In the last two weeks, Cain has accused the African American community of being brainwashed into supporting Democrats. He has said that racism in the USA no longer holds anyone back in a major way. Then he told viewers of Hannity that he "had left the plantation" of Democrat politics long ago. The response has been predictable. Some of the left have called him a racist. When the ridiculousness of that charge proved too much for even committed liberals to repeat it, they modified it. Harry Belafonte said that Cain was stupid and a bad person. Now, CNN's in house gay columnist LZ Granderson says that Cain is really trying to become famous with this stuff rather than run for president. Jesse Jackson has even been trotted out to denounce Cain for his comments.

The sad thing is that all of these folks seem to have nothing to say about Cain's topic; instead, they are just calling Cain names. After all, can anyone possibly believe that the interests of the black community are served by being so uniformly supportive of only one party? As a result, African Americans are taken for granted by the Democrats. Often their needs are ignored by Democrats; just remember when the Congressional Black Caucus said recently to president Obama that he was ignoring the needs of their community. And how bad is racism in the USA today? Here again, Cain is right. We have a black president. One of the leading contenders in the GOP is also black. Certainly there is a lower income level among African Americans in the USA than any other group, even Hispanics who have arrived here only recently. Why should dark skinned Hispanics do better than African Americans if the cause of their difficulties is racism? Maybe it would make more sense to look at the high level of homes with only one parent, the low levels of completion of high school and the higher incidence of drug use as a cause. When Cain says that anyone can make something of himself by hard work and self control, he seems to have a point.

The true reason why Cain's remarks are so repugnant to the liberal media and the usual "leaders" of the black community is in fact because they are true. Imagine what would happen if large numbers of African Americans took Cain's position to heart and began to rely on themselves rather than on the government and the community "leaders". It would not take long for there to be a clear difference in the results achieve by that group compared to the community as a whole. At that point, the real lies would be exposed for all to see. The idea that life on the government plantation helps the community. The idea that one fails not because of lack of effort but due to racism that makes failure inevitable. That would be the end of the road for the race charlatans like Al Sharpton and the others. It would also spell the end of power for the select group of Democrat politicians who keep control by pretending to "help" the balck community against the "evil" and "bigoted" GOP. No wonder the left is in such a panic about what Cain has said.