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Overview
Straight Talk From the Firebrand Libertarian Who Struck a Chord Across America
Larry Elder tells truths this nation's public figures are afraid to address. In The Ten Things You Can't Say in America, he turns conventional "wisdom" on its head and backs up his commonsense philosophy with cold, hard facts many ignore. Elder says what no one else will:
Blacks are more racist than whites.
White condescension is mor damaging than white racism
There is no health-care crisis
The War on Drugs is the new Vietnam...and we're losing
Republicans and Democrats are the same beast in different rhetoric
Gun control advocates have blood on their hands.
America's greatest problem? Illegitimacy.
The welfare state is our national narcotic.
There is no glass ceiling.
The media bias: it's real, it's widespread, it's destructive
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780312276188 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 09/04/2001 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 384 |
| Sales rank: | 954,097 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Larry Elder hosts Los Angeles's #1 prime-time radio talk show, The Larry Elder Show. He writes a montly column for Investors Business Daily and a syndicated column in fifteen national newspapers.
Larry Elder, host of “The Larry Elder Show” on KABC-AM in Los Angeles, was voted one of “The Top 25 Most Influential Talk-Radio Hosts” by NewsMax magazine in 2008. Elder also writes a column for Investor’s Business Daily and a syndicated column that appears in a variety of newspapers across the country. His books include Stupid Black Men and What's Race Got to Do with It?
Read an Excerpt
The Ten Things You Can't Say In America
By Larry Elder
St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 2000 Larry ElderAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-312-27618-8
CHAPTER 1
BLACKS ARE MORE RACIST THAN WHITES
Make no mistake about it. The Klan is alive and well in Southern California and there is a good chance that many of the CEOs who sit in powerful positions could either be Klan members or Klan sympathizers.
—COLUMNIST FOR THE BLACK NEWS WEEKLY LOS ANGELES SENTINEL
Racism Is Racism
"Larry Elder, is there a connection between your beliefs and the house and the white woman you have waiting for you in the hills?"
A black man asked me that during a debate over whether Hollywood conspires to shut out blacks. I called the notion paranoid and was greeted with that rather charming question.
Unfortunately, the questioner was typical. Many American blacks falsely and unfairly accuse whites for black America's "plight." Bad schools? White racism. Crime? White racism. Under-performance on standardized tests? Racist or "culturally biased" tests. Can't get a loan for a home or a new business? Racist lending officers, who would rather reject profit than give a black man a loan. Disproportionately high arrest rates? Racial profiling by racist cops.
To put it more bluntly, many blacks simply despise whites. They assume white bigotry and hostility toward blacks, and feel—against all evidence—that "white racism" remains an intense and formidable obstacle. What nonsense. So convinced that white racism stops black progress, many blacks not only ignore obvious signs of progress, but viciously attack anyone—especially someone black—who dares challenge the "they're-out-to-get-us" point of view. To hold the view—as I do—that racism no longer represents a serious threat to black upward mobility, to feel confident and positive about "race relations" in America—that makes me a "sellout." Thus, the questioner's attack, not on my views, philosophy, or ideology, but on me personally.
I take three positions, earning the wrath of blacks. First, I repudiate the "Johnnie Cochran doctrine." Recall that during the O. J. Simpson trial, defense attorney Cochran voiced the mantra of many "black leaders" when he said, "Race plays a part of everything in America." Second, I oppose race- and gender-based affirmative action. And, third, I believe O. J. Simpson butchered two innocent human beings. For this, "my people" have called me the following:
Oreo. Uncle Tom. Boot-licking Uncle Tom. Straight-up Uncle Tom. Judas. Boy. Bug-eyed. Foot-shuffling. Sugarcane Negro. Handkerchief head. Trojan Horse. Anti-black. Pro-white. Remus. Sambo. Sambo-Tom. The Anti-Christ. Clarence Thomas supporter. Sniveling weasel. Evil. Ass-kisser. Coconut. Wannabe white. Nickering nabob of negativity. And this is just an abbreviated list.
How dare I suggest that the fate of blacks is, well, in the hands of blacks!
Many blacks, encouraged by the so-called "black leadership," view life starkly. Us against them. Black versus white. Rich versus poor. Key is the following assumption: that whites encourage, endorse, perpetuate, welcome, are happy about, and take pride in the oppression of blacks. Challenge the traditional white-man-done-me-wrong-and-continues-to-do-so mentality, and some blacks go absolutely crazy.
What about black Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell's over-the-top defense of affirmative action? "Everybody who is a person of color in this country has benefited from affirmative action. There's not been anybody who has gotten into college on their own, nobody who's gotten a job on their own, no one who's prospered as a businessman or businesswoman on their own without affirmative action."
Hysterical. How else to describe how some blacks reacted to the California debate on affirmative action? Students at a local college there, Cal State Northridge, decided to host a debate over Proposition 209, a ballot initiative to exclude race and gender as a consideration in public hiring, public contracting, and admissions into state colleges and universities. For the pro-affirmative-action side, they selected a black veteran civil rights activist in Los Angeles. To defend the anti-affirmative-action position, they invited ... David Duke! That's right. David Duke. See, anyone opposing affirmative action therefore supports racism, Jim Crow, lynchings, hangings, police brutality, and the Klan. Why, if the anti-affirmative-action folks could, they would reenact slavery, take away the women's vote, and deregulate cable. Quick, somebody stop them! Is this not racist?
Influential black congresswoman Maxine Waters, former head of the Black Congressional Caucus, once called President George Bush "racist." Why? He differed with her on policy. That's enough. And Waters routinely refers to Republicans as "the enemy." Blatant bigotry against whites, for many blacks, resembles a badge of honor. Many blacks feel they can, with impunity, make utterly racist statements.
Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign manager, a black woman named Donna Brazile, once talked about the importance of defeating the Republicans. We must, she said, defeat the "white boys." "White boys," she said, has nothing to do with "gender or race, it's an attitude. A white boy attitude is 'I must exclude, denigrate, and leave behind.' They don't see it or think about it. It's a culture." A "white boy attitude"? She also attacked black Republicans General Colin Powell and Oklahoma congressman J. C. Watts: "The Republicans bring out Colin Powell and J. C. Watts because they have no program, no policy. They play that game because they have no other game. They have no love and no joy. They'd rather take pictures with black children than feed them."
Colin Powell, perhaps the most respected American public figure, would "rather take pictures with black children than feed them"? Colin Powell, who spends considerable time and energy in promoting volunteerism, would "rather take pictures with black children than feed them"? Powell, mind you, supports affirmative action, favors gun control legislation, once called the Newt Gingrich Republican "Contract with America" too harsh, and is pro-choice. But he has "no love and no joy." Hey, a statement like that gets a "white boy" campaign manager canned. But Ms. Brazile remains in charge, with virtually no one making an issue out of her blatantly bigoted statements.
Influential black director Spike Lee made a movie, Jungle Fever, about an interracial black-white romance. Lee, however, publicly stated his contempt for interracial relationships. In an October 1992 Esquire interview, Lee said, "I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street." Charming.
In the Spike Lee movie Malcolm X, Lee depicts an actual incident where a white teenager approaches the angry activist. "Excuse me, Mr. X. Hi, I've read some of your speeches, and I honestly believe that a lot of what you have to say is true, and I'm a good person, in spite of what my ancestors did, and I just, I wanted to ask you, what can a white person like myself who isn't prejudiced, what can I do to help you ... further your cause?" she asks plaintively. He stares sternly and replies, "Nothing."
When I gave a speech at a local high school, the front row featured several young black men wearing Malcolm X T-shirts. The picture on the T-shirts was that of "Malcolm-as-firebrand," with his finger thrust in the air circa his "white-man-is-the-devil" period.
"Do you know what happened to Malcolm X late in his life?" I asked the students. Two of the three said, "No." But the third said, "Yes. After he visited Mecca, where he saw people of all colors worshiping together, he changed the way he thought."
"Yes," I said. "Malcolm repudiated his 'white man as devil' anger and found that people had more in common than apart."
In Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X later reflects and regrets his response to the white coed.
"Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years."
Yet many blacks prefer to freeze their notion of Malcolm X in time, leaving him at the "white-man-is-devil-and-done-me-wrong-and-he's -gonna-get-his" stage. Never mind that Malcolm later renounced this blanket hatred of whites.
Suppose hypothetically, that director Martin Scorsese, in a television interview, says, "You know, whenever I see a black guy with a white woman, I give 'em a look like someone just expelled gas." Quicker than you can say "Arnold Schwarzenegger," Scorsese's publicist holds a press conference, issues a heartfelt and sincere apology, and explains that someone took the director's remarks out of context. Scorsese then steps up and announces the establishment of a "minority outreach fund" to develop screenwriters, directors, and producers. We all, says a tearful Scorsese, must become more sensitive to the concerns of the downtrodden and the "under-represented." Now Scorsese's back in business.
But what of Spike Lee? Perhaps someone should remind Lee of the 1970 Supreme Court decision that struck down laws against interracial marriage. Does Lee wish to reenact them? Does he agree with Chief Justice Taney, of Dred Scott fame, who deemed blacks to be sub-citizens without full rights, including the right to marry whomever they wish? Lee thus insults NAACP chairman Julian Bond, who married a white woman, as well as millions of other Americans in "interracial relationships." But did anyone, whether a black leader, editorial writer, political pundit, or movie reviewer demand an apology, or at least an explanation, from Spike Lee? Did anyone boycott his movies the way Catholics, blacks, Hispanics, and other groups target "offensive" movies? No, an unbelievably and blatant racist statement made by influential public figure Lee just floated right on by.
South Carolina's Bob Jones University lost its tax exempt status for refusing to admit blacks. While the university today admits blacks, it refused to allow interracial dating until recently. Critics blasted Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush for giving a speech there. "Racism," screamed critics who blasted Bush for his racial insensitivity in daring to give a speech at such a repulsive institution.
But is Bob Jones's anti-interracial dating policy any less offensive than a position taken by the National Association of Black Social Workers? That organization opposes "trans-racial" adoptions. According to that organization, blacks and whites have vast cultural differences. A white couple should not, therefore, adopt a black child.
In 1992, the National Association of Black Social Workers drafted a position paper, calling white adoptions of black children "cultural genocide." The group warned against "transculturation ... when one dominant culture overpowers and forces another culture to accept a foreign form of existence." A foreign form of existence?
Furthermore, many blacks, like whites, flatly oppose interracial dating and interracial marriage. In 1994, 65 percent of whites approved of interracial dating versus only 43 percent in 1987. Among young whites, 85 percent approved of interracial dating.
The majority of blacks, too, approved of interracial dating, with 88 percent giving approval in 1994. Among blacks, however, approval for mixed marriages fell from 76 percent in 1983 to 68 percent six years later. Among whites, though, those accepting mixed marriages continued to grow.
Black Racism and Black Myopia
When Julian Bond became NAACP chairman, he declared his intention to wage war on the number one problem facing blacks: "the new racists."
The new racists? Care to name names, Mr. Bond?
Examine Bond's mind-set. America is a battlefield. Good versus evil. Us versus them.
During the Second World War, Japanese fighters in Burma continued fighting long after the warring parties negotiated peace. Their remote location prevented them from learning the news, so they continued fighting. Similarly, many blacks continue "fighting the struggle" long after the declaration of peace. By nearly any measure—the right to vote, to use public accommodations, to attend a state college or university if qualified—the "civil rights" struggle, thank God, is over. The black leadership should stick the pole in the ground, raise the flag, salute, and convert the troops to civilian duty. Instead, they continue fighting a war long since won while ignoring far more pressing issues. The black leadership is in Burma.
In 1977, I accepted a job as an associate attorney with an old-line, silk-stocking Cleveland law firm. The firm, now more than a hundred years old, had, in its history, hired just a handful of blacks. My uncle, a thirty-year auto machinist with General Motors, sat me down to "caution" me about white treachery. "Larry, let me tell you something. You know I grew up on a farm in Alabama. My brothers and sisters and neighbors and I would walk, barefoot, five miles to the nearby schoolhouse. The white kids got bused to a school three miles away. And, as the bus drove by us black kids walking in single file, the white kids would curse at us, call us niggers, spit at us, and throw eggs and tomatoes. And this is how white folks can be, and I want you to—"
I cut him off. "Thurman," I said, "you know I love you. But, what happened to you has never happened to me. Nor will it. Today is today."
The real danger lies with the NAACP, not the KKK. Racism exists, and treachery always lurks. But the vision my uncle painted—however burnished in his own mind—bears little resemblance to contemporary America.
Hard memories. Tough, quite understandable, hard memories. In Florida, the public school system, with the support of the NAACP, seeks to end decades-long court-ordered desegregation. But one of the original litigants, Charles Rutledge, now 75 years old, denounces the proposed end to forced desegregation. Never mind that the lifting of the court order is supported by the NAACP, an organization whose chairman declared as his number one agenda to go after "the new racist." Say what you will about the NAACP, they are not soft on racism.
But Rutledge says, "If the court order is rescinded, they'll do what they want. America is still a racist nation. Hearts of men haven't changed that much."
Hard memories. But these memories do not reflect the memories of today's America. No one says forget, but we should recognize obvious progress, and maintain perspective.
My mother also grew up in the South, on a farm near Huntsville, Alabama. When my grandfather took my mom and her sister to the department store downtown, they entered through a separate door. And when my mom put on a dress, once the garment touched her skin, she owned it. The store made my grandfather purchase the item, no matter how ill fitting or unattractive. Black skin tainted the garments.
When my mom finished that story, I turned to my father. "Dad, was it like that with you, too?" My father, a man of few words, simply said, "Hats, too."
In the early 1950s, my mom took a plane ride. While pregnant with me, she carried my infant brother in her arms. Few blacks, in those days, traveled by air. So, no separate facilities—waiting rooms, bathrooms—yet existed in airports for blacks. So where was my mother to sit in the airport?
My mom said a sheepish airport worker asked her to stand to the side, and he brought her coffee. My mom said she felt almost sorry for this young white man, who saw the absurdity in forcing a paying customer to stand apart because of her skin color.
My parents told us these stories to show how far America has come, not to create anger, to divide, or to poison us. That America, my mom and dad told my brothers and me, no longer exists. So work hard, they said, and success follows.
We need historical perspective. Yes, slavery is America's horror and shame. But slavery, unfortunately, appears throughout the whole of human history. Europeans enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved Asians. Those we refer to as Native Americans enslaved other Native Americans. Black Africans enslaved other black Africans. Slave traders brought more African slaves to the Middle East and to South America than to Colonial America. Yet this country fought a civil war that resulted in the eradication of slavery. No other nation can say that.
But the black leadership in the United States remains dreary and pessimistic. Members of the Black Congressional Caucus introduced legislation for reparations for slavery.
Do wealthy blacks get a check? Should descendants of those who came to America after slavery pay up? Should descendants of those who fought and died on the Union side pay up? Should we make deductions for the trillions of dollars spent by the government on social programs from which blacks have benefited? What about people of mixed race? Should the payment correspond only to the percentage of a given citizen's "black blood"? Should we get a contribution from the African nations? After all, some black Africans assisted in the slave trade. And what about another question? Suppose the slave trade never happened, and today's thirty million American blacks instead live in Africa. Would they be better off?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Ten Things You Can't Say In America by Larry Elder. Copyright © 2000 Larry Elder. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,PREFACE,
1 - BLACKS ARE MORE RACIST THAN WHITES,
2 - WHITE CONDESCENSION IS AS BAD AS BLACK RACISM,
3 - THE MEDIA BIAS—IT'S REAL, IT'S WIDESPREAD, IT'S DESTRUCTIVE,
4 - THE CLASS CEILING—FULL OF HOLES,
5 - AMERICA'S GREATEST PROBLEM: NOT CRIME, RACISM, OR BAD SCHOOLS—IT'S ILLEGITIMACY,
6 - THERE IS NO HEALTH-CARE "CRISIS",
7 - AMERICA'S WELFARE STATE: THE TYRANNY OF THE STATIST QUO,
8 - REPUBLICANS VERSUS DEMOCRATS—MAYBE A DIME'S WORTH OF DIFFERENCE,
9 - THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS IS VIETNAM II: WE'RE LOSING THIS ONE, TOO,
10 - GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES—GOOD GUYS WITH BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS,
11 - THE LAST WORD ON THE "STOLEN" 2000 ELECTION AND THE NEW ADMINISTRATION—WILL EVERYBODY PLEASE QUIT WHINING?,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
APPENDIX,
NOTES,
INDEX,
Copyright Page,
Interviews
Exclusive Author Essay
The Ten Things You Can't Say in America goes over ten taboo topics: black racism, white condescension, the phony health care crisis, the lack of differences between the two major parties, and others.
Many will read and hate the book, but for the wrong reasons. Not merely because they find my opinions wrong, but dangerous.
The book shows how non-freedom-loving Americans -- through government -- stomp on the rights of the rest of us. From lawsuits against cigarette companies and gun manufacturers, through "living wage ordinances" dictating salary paid by private employers to jailing people for drug use, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America reminds us that the Founding Fathers envisioned a small, limited government and assumed people wise enough to make and accept the consequences of their own decisions.
Why can your neighbor come home after work, hit the liquor cabinet, and make a martini, while the guy across the street commits a crime in smoking a joint? Why is it OK to pay an actor and an actress for simulating sex, but not OK to pay someone to provide sex for you? So-called liberals want government to regulate business, and so-called conservatives want government to ensure religion in public schools. Both are wrong.
Benjamin Franklin said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Enjoy the read. (Larry Elder)