Bigotry is Alive and Well

 Bigotry is Alive and Well

 IMHO, all Americans have equal rights and should be accepted within our society on that basis.  Ideally, there should be no discrimination or prejudicial action either against, or on behalf of, any ethnic or other societal sub group.  Being human, and being political, that ideal is virtually never met, even though three-quarters of a million Americans died in our civil war, ostensibly to guarantee that right to Black Americans.

 From “no Irish need apply”, to the southern white supremacists’ lynchings of Black Americans, to the condemnation and derision of the LGBTQ++++ community and any others different from the main, active bigotry has always been part of the fabric of America, notwithstanding our pontifications about democracy and freedom.

 Something needed to be done to guarantee equal rights and an end to overt discrimination, first against Black Americans, then by association, discrimination against other groups and sub groups.  The road was long and complex, and some say has never ended.  This link gives some of the history of the civil rights movement.

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement

 Then, somewhere along the way, “the tail started wagging the dog”.

What were once negative discriminatory practices against minorities were turned into codified privileges ingrained in our laws and societal practices, primarily by our left-wing politicians.  The “woke”, “social justice”, “identity politics”, “intersectionality”, “equity” revolution has arrived, ostensibly attempting to erase years of ingrained bigotry, but instead instituting another form of reverse leftist bigotry.

 Abuses of this extant “social justice” bigotry are as dire as its predecessors.  Some examples are cries for “reparations” and special privileges by some activist Black Americans some 200 years after the fact, gender modification of children, teaching racist and LGBTQ+++ curricula in public schools, and attempting to marginalize any and all things considered “traditional” or “patriotic”.

 As a long time observer of trends in our country, the pendulum will hopefully swing away from the activist extremist left-wing to something more moderate, and bring with it some benefits of the extremist experimentation with “equity”, “wokeness”, and the like.

 Ray Gruszecki

April 15, 2023