Vincent Piombino

Professor Thomas
UWRT 1102/03
April 19, 2016
A Kings Tears:
The Misconceptions of a Generation and the Survival of Racism

Racism. A taboo word that ignites the anxieties of Americans with the most profound
consequences. The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities
specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or
races. Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race than
ones own. Racism has long existed in America, the state with a history of bigotry that its citizens
will never forget, and potentially never forgive. From slavery to Jim Crow, from Montgomery
Alabama to Ferguson Missouri, racism has transcended time and place. But why does racism
continue to thrive? Why wont this divisive concept just die within the majority? Some believe in
the elitist tyranny that forces the minority groups into submission by spreading their hateful
influence. While racism could simply exist because of a mindset of superiority within the
majority group, there is more evidence supporting a different theory. Racism continues to exist
because the formerly oppressed, and leftist mindset will not let it die. Racism is a power word, a
word that can allow many to get what they want or have their lack of merit forgotten. Racism
exists because the descendants of the formerly oppressed have grown to become the oppressors,
that the current generation of black minorities believe they are owed compensation for a crime
that they were never alive to be victims of. There is an illusion of anti-minority racism that is

being used as a tool of manipulation to rouse citizens into a coalition of hate, an illusion that has
become what it claims to be fighting against.
The most modern, and televised, racial controversy is drawn from the Black Lives Matter
movement. The movement preaches anti-white sentiment, on the basis that they are oppressed by
their privileged counterpart. With a strong disdain for cops, and siting many of the most recent
racial uproars, the movement has grown quickly and drawn a great deal of attention from media,
politics, and citizens alike. The movement is notorious for its violent protests and riots that
would put the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to shame. So how are these Black Panther like
movements against racism not divisive? Where are these individuals getting their information?
Are they even fighting against something thats actually happening?
The liberal media and political left are the origin and the cause of this racial division. The
left has developed a stigma within minority groups, indoctrinating them with the belief that they
will never be treated equally and do not share the same opportunities as their white neighbors.
Author and Fox News political commentator Jason Riley explains in his book that The sober
truth is that the most important civil rights battles were fought and won four decades before the
Obama presidency. The black underclass continues to face many challenges, but they have to do
with values and habits, not oppression from a manifestly unjust society. Blacks have become
their own worst enemy, and liberal leaders do not help matters by blaming self-inflicted wounds
on whites or society. The notion that racism is holding back blacks as a group, or that better
black outcomes cannot be expected until racism has been vanquished, is a dodge. And
encouraging blacks to look to politicians to solve their problems does them a disservice. As the
next chapter explains, one lesson of the Obama presidencymaybe the most important one for
blacksis that having a black man in the Oval Office is less important than having one in the

home. (Jason L. Riley, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for
Blacks to Succeed). This sentiment is often overlooked and underappreciated, that the fictions
cast by modern politicians and popular media are actually hindering the progression of the
country with their divisive tactics. By segregating the groups and creating a black interest
instead of an American interest, is racist in and of itself. The media and the politicians are
manipulating this conflict, over exaggerating and lying about circumstances, as well as finding
malicious intent where there is none. The battles for civil rights have been fought and WON,
continuing the fight is only creating a new form of racist that rely on lies of victimization to gain
unfair and disproportionate treatment. Politicians like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders only
fuel the fire with their campaigning.
A television ad for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign now airing in South Carolina shows
the candidate declaring that too many encounters with law enforcement end tragically. She
later adds: We have to face up to the hard truth of injustice and systemic racism. Her
Democratic presidential rival, Bernie Sanders, met with the Rev. Al Sharpton the morning after
the New Hampshire primary. Mr. Sanders then tweeted that As President, let me be very clear
that no one will fight harder to end racism and reform our broken criminal justice system than I
will. And he appeared on the TV talk show The View saying, It is not acceptable to see
unarmed people being shot by police officers.
Apparently the Black Lives Matter movement has convinced Democrats and progressives that
there is an epidemic of racist white police officers killing young black men. Such rhetoric is
going to heat up as Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders court minority voters before the Feb. 27 South
Carolina primary.

But what if the Black Lives Matter movement is based on fiction? Not just the fictional account
of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., but the utter misrepresentation
of police shootings generally. To judge from Black Lives Matter protesters and their media and
political allies, you would think that oppressive cops pose the biggest threat to young black men
today. But this perception, like almost everything else that many people think they know about
fatal police shootings, is wrong.
The Washington Post has been gathering data on fatal police shootings over the past year and a
half to correct acknowledged deficiencies in federal tallies. The emerging data should open the
eyes of many citizens.
For starters, fatal police shootings make up a much larger proportion of white and Hispanic
homicide deaths than black homicide deaths. According to the Post database, in 2015 officers
killed 662 whites and Hispanics, and 258 blacks. (The overwhelming majority of all those
police-shooting victims were attacking the officer, often with a gun.) Using the 2014 homicide
numbers as an approximation of 2015s, those 662 white and Hispanic victims of police
shootings would make up 12% of all white and Hispanic homicide deaths. That is three times the
proportion of black deaths that result from police shootings. The lower proportion of black
deaths due to police shootings can be attributed to the lamentable black-on-black homicide rate.
There were 6,095 black homicide deaths in 2014the most recent year for which such data are
availablecompared with 5,397 homicide deaths for whites and Hispanics combined. Almost all
of those black homicide victims had black killers.
Police officersof all racesare also disproportionately endangered by black assailants. Over
the past decade, according to FBI data, 40% of cop killers have been black. Officers are killed by
blacks at a rate 2.5 times higher than the rate at which blacks are killed by police. Some may find

evidence of police bias in the fact that blacks make up 26% of the police-shooting victims,
compared with their 13% representation in the national population. But as residents of poor black
neighborhoods know too well, violent crimes are disproportionately committed by blacks.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, blacks were charged with 62% of all robberies,
57% of murders and 45% of assaults in the 75 largest U.S. counties in 2009, though they made
up roughly 15% of the population there. Such a concentration of criminal violence in minority
communities means that officers will be disproportionately confronting armed and often resisting
suspects in those communities, raising officers own risk of using lethal force.

The Black Lives Matter movement claims that white officers are especially prone to shooting
innocent blacks due to racial bias, but evidence suggests that this too is myth. A March 2015
Justice Department report on the Philadelphia Police Department found that black and Hispanic
officers were much more likely than white officers to shoot blacks based on threat
misperceptionthat is, the mistaken belief that a civilian is armed. A 2015 study by University
of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway, formerly acting director of the National Institute
of Justice, found that, at a crime scene where gunfire is involved, black officers in the New York
City Police Department were 3.3 times more likely to discharge their weapons than other officers
at the scene.
The Black Lives Matter movement has been stunningly successful in changing the subject from
the realities of violent crime. The world knows the name of Michael Brown but not Tyshawn
Lee, a 9-year-old black child lured into an alley and killed by gang members in Chicago last fall.
Tyshawn was one of dozens of black children gunned down in America last year. The Baltimore
Sun reported on Jan. 1: Blood was shed in Baltimore at an unprecedented pace in 2015, with
mostly young, black men shot to death in a near-daily crush of violence. Those were black lives

that mattered, and it is a scandal that outrage is heaped less on the dysfunctional culture that
produces so many victims than on the police officers who try to protect them.
With so many falsities being preached by the largest and most supported black rights
movement, why are people still listening? The Black Lives Matter movement is endorsed and
supported by common liars who hold extreme political sway and popular influence, like
Reverend Al Sharpton of the NAACP. Pulitzer Prize-winning American newspaper columnist
Kathleen Parker discredited Al Sharpton in her article "Al Sharptons Ace Card."
(Washingtonpost.com), citing several instances in which Sharpton lied to the public as with the
case of the exotic dancer Crystal Gail Mangum, in 2006, where Sharpton took up the cause of the
exotic dancer, who falsely accused three players on the Duke lacrosse team of gang-raping her.
Or the Tawana Brawley case, where the 15 year old African American girl claimed she had been
gang-raped by six white men (including an assistant district attorney and a New York state
trooper) who scrawled KKK across her chest and a racial epithet on her stomach, Sharpton
supported her claims and ultimately was forced to pay $65,000 in damages to the assistant
district attorney he had falsely accused. The NAACPs agenda is about deflecting blame away
from blacks and maintaining the relevance of the NAACP. These leaders of equality are
creating a new wave of hate and mistrust by filling the heads of these malleable citizens with
falsehood. If citizens continue to listen to racist liars with their own political agendas, then the
American culture will never move beyond this eye for an eye stigma.
Abraham Lincoln once spoke that A house divided against itself cannot stand., yet we
continue to fight amongst ourselves. By fighting for more rights and protections, and identifying
as an African American rather than an American, citizens are segregating themselves. How
do you fight against racism if you recognize and support that the races are different? This

hypocrisy is why this battle never ends, how can you fight against an idea you support? This is
most evident in politics, such as with The political left, which has long embraced identity
politics, encourages racial and ethnic loyalty. It is manifest in liberal support for
multiculturalism, hate-crime laws, racially gerrymandered voting districts, affirmative-action
quotas, and other policies. Stick together, black people, says popular black radio host Tom
Joyner, an Obama booster. (Jason L. Riley, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make
It Harder for Blacks to Succeed). No matter what policies he pursues, the presidents
racialized embodiment stands as a symbol of triumphant black achievement, asserts MSNBCs
Melissa Harris-Perry.4 Black politicians have long played off of the notion that blacks owe
allegiance to their own., a divisive racist prospect in and of itself. Academy Award-winning
actor Morgan Freeman, who endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008, said that having a
Black History Month was ridiculous and that the best way to end racism today is to stop
talking about it. Freeman describes that by associating and limiting history to a special month is
doing a disservice to the black community because the black community, like black history, is
American history. The community needs to stop segregating itself.
The older Generations of African Americans who experienced true racial oppression have
indoctrinated their children with the ideas that they will always be treated differently than whites.
These younger generations do the same to their children, and so on. When these children raised
to believe that they will be discriminated against and the liberal media reinforces this idea in
their minds, then of course it becomes fact in their minds. This unoppressed generation then goes
on to fight against the nonexistent white privilege within United States. With the divisive
mindset of their elders, the support and handholding of the left, and the bitterness of history, this

generation goes onto separate itself and attack whites for being evil bigots, and thus racism
continues to thrive in America through the hate of the next generation of African Americans.
In 1982 five black candidates from majority-white districts won seats in the North
Carolina State House of Representatives. Or that from 1983 to 1995 a majority-white district in
Missouri was represented in Congress by Alan Wheat, a black Democrat. Or that between 1991
and 1997 Gary Franks, a black Republican from Connecticut, represented a congressional district
that was 88 percent white. Or that in 1996 Sanford Bishop, a black Democrat from Georgia,
easily won reelection to Congress in a district that was only 35 percent black. Or that in 2010
Tim Scott of South Carolina and Allen West of Florida, both black Republicans, were elected to
Congress from districts that are overwhelmingly white. Or that Representatives Emanuel Cleaver
of Missouri and Keith Ellison of Minnesota are black Democrats who represent districts that are
more than 60 percent white. Despite all these overwhelming advances, citizens continue to
believe in white washed politics and an unfair systems.
Noted author, Harvard graduate, staff writer at National Review, attorney (concentrating his
practice in constitutional law and the law of armed conflict), and a veteran of Operation Iraqi
Freedom, David French made a powerful statement in his article "The Numbers Are In: Black
Lives Matter Is Wrong About Police Statistics." saying While I am no fan of social movements
built on false narratives, Black Lives Matter did inspire the Posts valuable study a study that,
fairly read, should defuse national tensions. It wont, however. The narrative is too strong, and
too many powerful people have too much to gain by ratcheting up racial tensions. So Black
Lives Matter will likely roll on, and still more black Americans will be taught to hate and fear
law enforcement, fed on a steady diet of lies about their own country. French hits the high note
with this statement, acknowledging that racial tensions are too profitable for liberal politicians

and left leaning interest groups. The narrative will continue to be told, and generation after
generation of African Americans will continue to believe this radical myth of white oppression,
further digging their own community and by default the American community into the dirt of an
outdated and divided past.
America is torn in two, we have forgotten the sentiment sand intentions of great leaders
such as Martin Luther King Jr. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their
character.- Martin Luther King Jr. The dream was for peace and equality to prevail, that
Americans can live together in brotherhood. Until the African American community learns to
ignore the anti-white sentiment of the leftist power, and comes to terms with the fact that they are
not being oppressed, that dream will never become reality. When we stand united as a nation and
all identify as Americans, when we are color blind not only to others but to ourselves, only then
will racism finally die. Let us not stand separately but together, no longer as whites and blacks,
but as human beings. Equality is not a fight for blacks, equality is a fight for all mankind, a battle
for all races, gender, and creeds. We all deserve equality. I refuse to accept the view that
mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright
daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and
unconditional love will have the final word.- Martin Luther King Jr.

Works Cited
Blake, John. "The New Threat: 'Racism without Racists'" CNN. CNN, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 20
Apr. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/>.

Fantz, Ashley. "NAACP Leader Resigns; Accused of Lying about Race." CNN. CNN, 15 June
2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/us/washington-rachel-dolezalnaacp/>.

Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty. "NAACP." History.com. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Company, Fall 1991. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/naacp>.

French / National Review, David. "The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong About
Police Statistics." Http://m.foxnews.com. Fox News, 30 Dec. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
<http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/12/30/numbers-are-black-lives-matter-wrong-about-policestatistics>.

Parker, Kathleen. "Al Sharptons Ace Card." Washingtonpost.com. Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2015.
Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-al-sharptonsace-card/2015/01/06/0d48f130-95ee-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html>.

Hill, Marc Lamont. "Racism Is so Deeply Embedded in Our Psyche." CNN.com. CNN, 29 Nov.
2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/27/opinions/hill-race-in-america/>.

Riley, Jason. Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. N.p.:
Encounter, 2014. Print.

Sakuma, Amanda. "Black Lives Matter, a Political Force to Be Reckoned with." MSNBC.com.
MSNBC News, 23 Oct. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/black-livesmatter-obama-marshall-project>.

FBI. FBI, 08 May 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2016. <https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-inthe-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expandedhomicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_s

ex_of_offender_2013.xls/>.