Insults to Black History

Many whites are ashamed, saddened, and feel guilty about our history of slavery, Jim Crow, and gross racial discrimination. Many black people remain angry over the injustices of the past and what they see as injustices of the present. Both blacks and whites can benefit from a better appreciation of black history.

Often overlooked or ignored is the fact that, as a group, black Americans have made the greatest gains, over some of the highest hurdles, and in a shorter span of time than any other racial group in history.

For example, if one totaled up the earnings and spending of black Americans and considered us as a separate nation with our own gross domestic product, we would rank well within the top 20 richest nations.

A black American, Gen. Colin Powell, once headed the world’s mightiest military. Black Americans are among the world’s most famous personalities, and a few black Americans are among the world’s richest people such as investor Robert F. Smith, IT service provider David Steward, Oprah Winfrey, and basketball star Michael Jordan. Plus, there was a black U.S. president.

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The significance of these achievements cannot be overstated.

When the Civil War ended, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have believed such progress would be possible in less than a century and a half—if ever. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people.

Just as important, it speaks to the greatness of a nation in which such gains were possible. Nowhere else on earth could such progress been achieved except in the United States of America.

The issue that confronts us is how these gains can be extended to about one-quarter of the black population for whom they have proven elusive. The first step is to acknowledge that the civil rights struggle is over and won. At one time, black Americans did not enjoy the constitutional guarantees as everyone else. Now we do.

While no one can deny the existence of residual racial discrimination, racial discrimination is not the major problem confronting a large segment of the black community.

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