I just withdrew a post.

Only about 80 e-mail recipients saw it, which is just as well. I can’t stop those 80 from reading it, but I wish they wouldn’t; or, if they do, I wish they’d cut me some slack on it. After my wife Carol read it and raised dozens of points against it, I realized I hadn’t thought it through.

That’s the trouble with shooting off your mouth. It’s fun, but it can get you in trouble.

The posting was yet another in my on-again-off-again musings about race relations in America. I’m speaking again on this topic on Friday (see below). I’d planned to give more or less the same presentation I’d made previously at Chicago Sinai Congregation and the Washington Ethical Society, but now I have to make some changes. My thinking has been evolving, due to several factors:

• I’d advocated a “National Time of Acknowledgment and Atonement” (”A Modest Proposal,” Nov. 17, 2006, http://tolovemercy.com/frank_joseph_blog/page/2/) in which Americans black and white, would attempt to understand how slavery still affects us today, and in particular try to put themselves in the shoes of others.

• As if they’d heard me, the Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing “profound regret” for the Old Dominion’s role in slavery. The Maryland Legislature is considering a similar resolution.

• I posted in this space a counter-proposal from Maria Markham Thompson, my nephew Michael’s wife (”Show Us the Money”, Feb. 10, 2007, http://tolovemercy.com/frank_joseph_blog/), advocating practical economic measures to close the divide between black Americans and the rest of American society.

• Maybe a dozen people praised Maria’s proposals, saying she should send them to the presidential candidates and op-ed pages. But a friend I’ll call “Bill” responded in a rage. I think he took Maria’s proposals as just more affirmative action (although I don’t think Maria was saying that at all). As a white man approaching 60, “Bill” feels he has been victimized unfairly by affirmative action. “Bill” and I e-mailed back and forth, me trying to mollify him, him just getting madder and madder.

Out of all this, I’d had a new thought. In many ways, American society these days is two societies, black and white. That doesn’t seem to me like a good thing for any of us, black or white. But here’s the new thought: Back in the ’40s and ’50s, this wasn’t the case. Blacks by and large wanted to be a part of the broader American culture, not separate from it, despite discrimination and segregation far, far more crushing than anything today. There was no call for a national self-examination over slavery, that I’m aware of anyway, despite the fact that the actual slave experience was still fresh in some minds.

I spouted off. I theorized that Dr. King’s movement had raised hopes that were dashed by his assassination; that black culture was weakened by the misguided welfare reforms of the Johnson administration; that in the wake of Dr. King’s asssassination, new leaders emerged who pointed black Americans down a separatist path; and then somehow the whole thing went blooey, ideals went sour, and now some blacks today are glorifying “gangsta” values.

I speculated that the so-called Revolution of Rising Expectations was at work. This is a sociological/political notion that says revolutions don’t occur among the downtrodden; revolutions only begin when the downtrodden start seeing some hope.

I sided with “Bill” against affirmative action, which I oppose on the principle of Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right. I’m sticking with what I wrote about affirmative action: “Affirmative action, in my opinion, is reverse discrimination, a zero-sum game that takes from whites to give to blacks. It seems inherently unfair, and even seems (to this non-lawyer) unconstitutional. It may be a necessary evil to correct an even more unfair situation, but I’ve never liked it as a solution and I’d welcome its [replacement with something fairer].”

Above, I deplored the glorification by some blacks of “gangsta” values. Well, guess what: So do many blacks. I got a powerful demonstration of this yesterday, when I appeared with four black authors at Karibu Books in Iverson Mall and heard it from their own mouths, as well as from others in the all (except my wife Carol) black audience. And I deplore a lot of value-glorification associated more with whites than with blacks in today’s society (cf. Britney Spears). Is this a black problem, a white problem, a problem of all society, or what?

I finished by saying some presumptuous things about the black middle class and the trickle-down benefits that may flow from its recent, growing successes. But my wife Carol pointed out that the black middle class is walking a fine line, faulted by less-fortunate blacks for being ‘too white,’ yet still facing discrimination from mainstream white society.

I don’t apologize for trying to discuss these issues – I wish more persons were doing just that – but I see that the subject is way too big for me to handle. Every time I write, I infuriate someone; my friend “Bill,” for example, now says he is no longer my friend. And the more I write, the further I seem to get from answers.

Anyway, here I am, no blog in hand, no argument to be made, more confused than ever, and what’s worse, slicing up the humble pie, eating (Jim) crow. Anyone want to help me figure this stuff out before Friday?

Frank Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. For a good time, click on http://krmlradio.com this Tuesday at 1:30 Eastern time, click on “Listen Now,” download the applet, and wait 15 minutes to hear my dulcet tones.

P.P.S. And if you’re near the State Department (2300 E St. NW, Washington DC) at noon this Friday, come hear me at BUMED (I still don’t know what BUMED stands for). For exact location, e-mail or call me (301-656-8753/301-996-0450).