OPINION:
Award-winning singer and songwriter Jill Scott took to an Essence Fest stage and belted out a rendition of the National Anthem that subbed out the phrases “by the dawn’s early light” and “what so proudly we hailed” for “by the blood in the streets” and “that this place doesn’t smile on you, colored child.”
And the nearly all-black crowd cheered and cheered and cheered. And Essence put out a tweet that said, “Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.”
Well if that’s what Scott and Essence and Essence Fest-goers truly think about America — leave.
Why stay in a country that hates you, right?
“Oh, say can you see, by the blood in the streets, that this place doesn’t smile on you, colored child, who’s blood but this land, with sweat and their hands,” Scott sang. “But you’ll die in this place, and you’re memory erased.”
This isn’t a truthful description of America so much as a convenient political talking point of the Democrat Party — one that says that without slaves, this country never would have survived. It’s the race card drivel that low-information, no-information voters suck up and snuggle with all the live long day as the cause of their own failures — the one that lets them dodge accountability, personal choice, hard work, responsibility and God forbid, self-reflection. It’s the one that excuses bad behavior, even violent behavior, as justified so long as its perpetrators are dark skinned and victims, light skinned. After all, it’s not violence — it’s righteous indignation; it’s a fight for freedom; it’s a moral attack on evil, right?
There’s a lot of money to be made — a lot of careers to be built — in race politicking. Just ask Al Sharpton. Or Black Lives Matter leaders, like the one accused of stealing $10 million in donations, Shalomyah Bowers.
Crumbling the narrative of America as an evil slave-built, slavery-loving nation would impact quite a few bank accounts. Scott, for instance, has a reported net worth of $12 million or so.
Yet her vision of America is nonetheless one that advances the lie of systemic racism.
It’s also a vision that’s based entirely on deception and disregard for other historical facts that ought to be recalled while discussing America as inherently racist — facts like the fact that roughly 360,222 mostly white Union soldiers died fighting the Civil War; facts like that fact. Just sayin’. Reparations can flow both ways.
“Oh, say can you see, does this truth hold any weight? This is not the land of the free,” she sang, “but the home of the slaves.”
Actually, slavery is not specific to America. It’s been an institution around the world since, well, ever. But it is specific to America the lengths to which the nation went to abolish slavery; it was largely Western Civilization, European nations, Christian societies and American morals and virtues that ultimately stopped the spread of slavery and criminalized its practice.
And ‘lest we forget: blacks enslaved blacks, too.
“Perhaps because it conflicts with react-based political agendas, slavery of Africans by fellow Africans is one of those uncomfortable truths that often flies under the radar,” a poster for the Catalyst, a publication of the Independent Institute, wrote in a piece called “The History of Slavery You Weren’t Taught in School,” in February.
“Likewise,” the piece continues, “industrial-scale slavery of Africans by nearby Arabs as well as Arab slavery of Europeans are historical facts that are frequently ignored.”
Of course, leftists hate these truths because the mission of leftists is not so much to learn from history, or heal from history, or teach truthful history, as it is to snatch bits and pieces of controversial, ugly histories to use for political ambitions, and exploit for personal gain.
The sad part of the story is, though, that telling black people they’re downtrodden and depressed can actually become a self-fulfilling prophesy for young impressionable black minds. How many children in public schools, of all skin colors, not just black, have been raised to despise American Exceptionalism based on skewed teachings of U.S. history that leave out critical, context-rich facts? These next generation of leaders then become the loud, angry voices of repression, throwing race cards wherever and whenever opportunity presents, furthering divisions, fostering resentments, ultimately creating the very conflicts they claim to despise; they say they’re determined to defeat.
Self-fulfilling prophesy.
Racism is an issue in America — just as it’s an issue everywhere in the world where ignorant people dwell.
Inherent racism is not an issue in America; neither, systemic racism. Just because founders owned slaves doesn’t mean the Constitution is a slave-promoting document. To argue such would be to have to argue as well that the entire black race is inherently racist because some blacks, historically speaking, owned slaves.
It’s ridiculous.
But it is a money-maker for many. And that’s why the Democrat Party continues to exploit race: for profit and for political wins.
If America truly were a nation that discriminated based on skin color, Barack Obama never would have been president, Clarence Thomas never would have been voted Supreme Court justice, Ben Carson never would have served in a White House cabinet role — or been allowed to attend medical school, or been allowed to become a neurosurgeon.
And Scott never would have made her $12 million.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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