Do White lives matter?
Are Reparations are owed to Irish Americans? Or is the BLM rhetoric nonsense?
In the regime of Oliver Cromwell under James II of England, hundreds of thousands of Irish men were murdered and over 300,000 were sold into slavery (sometimes described as indentured servitude although there was no hope of every paying the indenture) in the West Indies and America. More Irishmen were sold as slaves than Africans during the slave trade years. Persecution of the Irish by British kings continued well into the nineteenth century. My ancestors came to Canada in 1790 to escape the persecution of Irish men by British soldiers exacerbated by the potato famines that plagued Ireland.
Americans despised the Irish and treated them abominably as if they were less than human. Irish Catholics were vilified for being Catholic. Irish Protestants were vilified for being Irish and Protestant. Irish Americans were barred from voting unless they had been in America for 21 years.
Signs cropped up that stated: No Irish Need Apply.
Unike Black slaves who were emancipated by proclamation under Lincoln, no President took action to ease the lot of Irish Americans. But unlike Black activists, Irish Americans do not identify as “victims” of oppression and do not pretend America is a racist country. Rather, the Irish suffered in silence and built their lives in one of greatest countries on Earth. Long before Barack Obama was elected as the first black President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected as the first Irish Catholic president. Kennedy’s family came to America to escape the potato famine only to face the persecution of the Irish.
Without complaint, like many Irish, the Kennedy’s worked hard to build their future and enjoyed many successes. They made their money the old fashioned way - they earned it.
The success of the Irish in melding into American society was their resilience and unwillingness to define themselves as victims. Most black Americans are the same. They work hard, pursue education and advance themselves through their efforts.
But the in the current environment of Black Lives Matter (BLM) avowed communists like Patrice Cullors use racist rhetoric to collect millions in donations and use the money to benefit her family and buy real estate, it is time to persuade America to recognize that victims of American discrimination were not only blacks but also white men from Ireland. That discrimination ended a long time ago, but artifacts of it remain which BLM uses to try and persuade people that a general racist tyranny continues and defines America. It does not.
Reality is that America is a land of opportunity. What separates unsuccesful Americans from success is effort, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, religions or the colour of their skin. It is time to put the “racism” chants to bed and recognize that the sins of the past are in the past.
BLM has promoted the falsehood that police shoot more blacks. Baloney. Police shoot more whites and Hispanics and the false narrative is created using percentages of the total United States population rather than percentages of the population of persons involved in a crime, which is disproportionately black. Police are not shooting random citizens and the ratio to the entire population of the United States is intentionally misleading to promote a left wing talking point. In 2018, Black Americans made up 53% of homicides and 60% of robberies despite comprising only 13% of the population.
Has anyone noticed that the NBA has a disproportionate percentage of black players over white? Is that “racism” or are the individuals just better players? You decide. I will go with “better players”.
It is also time to stop wasting money making donations to BLM whose anti-American communist rhetoric benefits no one, and take pride in the reality that 55 of the mayors of the 100 largest cities in America are black - evidence that voters are not biased but support capable people regardless of their skin colour.
Irish Americans ask nothing from America. They benefit from the freedoms and opportunities they already enjoy. Most Black Americans do the same.
BLM rhetoric is nonsense and BLM is a disgrace. Donate your money to actual charities, not retirement funds for communists.