All day I have been listening to Winston Churchill's history of the Second World War and although it is not astonishing that I hear it, nevertheless I am braced by the extent to which I find the laxity in leadership of any modern nation capable of reducing its quality until such point that it is unable to stand in its own defense. I daresay I am more attuned than ever to that precarious balance. And so it is with that in mind that I offer my first daring critique of Christopher Bracey's new book Saviors or Sellouts, having only read short way in and briefly browsing for my own and contemporary mention.
Within the first few pages Bracey makes it clear that he is, while earnestly attempting to be open-minded and fair in his investigation, rather beholden to the concept of racial empowerment. It seems that there is very little else any black partisan can do of moral import from this perspective other than pursue the aims of a sort of equality that is presumably measured in percentages. I may mischaracterize his premises, and only a complete reading will tell, but so far it appears that he has rigged the game, or at least defined the choir to which he intends to inform. Of course it is reasonable in some ways to presume his intended audience is most concerned about the implications of race [group] relations. We certainly don't lack for multiculturalists, but I'm afraid I must complain about this aim as a benchmark for the evaluation of black conservatives - or at least make an exception for myself.
For I have been born into a generation and raised in a class which has prepared me to consider the brotherhood of blacks and non-blacks with relative ease and think in a critical way such as to regard all racial traffic with suspicion. Not merely because of some lighthearted aspiration to colorblindness, but rather to a clear appreciation of the perversion of our accumulated wisdom which is availed by entreaties to racial empowerment of any sort. So while I am apt to find much to be admired in the demeanor of the first Philadelphia Negroes and of Booker T's admonishments to blacks to live righteously, it is not that same exact paternalism which causes me to criticize my liberal and progressive fellows, black and otherwise. It is, rather, my appreciation of the crimes of Hitler and Stalin, not coincidently brought to my attention by conservative scholars, which enjoins me to cast my opprobrium.
It must be said, that having converted slowly and lately to the form of conservatism I now profess, I am struck by the extent to which my perennial cries for 'social justice' had blinded me in my selfish quest to see American blacks equal American whites in every way to the abhorrent crimes perpetrated man against man in the whole of world history. The way some black partisans wail, one would think there were no greater victims of treachery than our own forbears 'through 400 years..'. Even considering the grave horrors of the transatlantic slave trade's middle passage, what manner of justice can be had today? Indeed, are we aiming for some cosmic adjudication, or perhaps someone to finally come to power in America to exact the toll in proper pounds of white flesh? Our complaint can only be minimal. Were we to properly enjoy and defend that liberty which is our birthright, our righteousness would lead our quest for true justice in more pressing realms, and not heed the putative vengeance of long dead ancestral ghosts of 'our race'. Every day someone else calls for such 'social justice' is another day of retardation.
Nevertheless, I hope to finish both Churchill and Bracey by this time next week and will surely have more reflections on his assessment of the black conservative movement of which I am some small part. I can't say with any certainty that I am not a savior or that I am not a sellout. Only time will tell.
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