Real Numbers and Statistics

 Real Numbers and Statistics

 Our country has, from early days, been a melting pot for people from all over the world.  Some did not melt too readily, such as the dark Africans brought here as slaves in the first centuries of our existence. It took a civil war and the loss of nearly 700,000 mostly Caucasian Americans to ameliorate the wrongs of slavery and accept these African-Americans as full citizens.  Pockets of bigotry still remain against our black citizens, but nowhere near the “systemic racism” claimed as endemic by some rabid activists for our whole country.

 We lived through a civil rights movement in the 1960’s that made equality for black Americans real, in everyday life, rather than just codified in various laws without the strength of public opinion.  Martin Luther King Jr. and most of his followers applied Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of non-violence to gain wide-spread acceptance of American blacks into the mainstream of society.  To be noted is that the awakening of American society needed to be accomplished by a national movement to gain full rights for the 10% of black Americans comprising America (at that time).

 Growing on the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, various other societal groups have sought recognition and more special rights, rather than equal rights in society.  These groups claim that since they have been discriminated against in the past, they now should have special recognition and privileges to redress past ills. Our current “woke” movement has particularly identified the LGBTQ+++ and trans folks for redress and special privilege.

 There are 334.4 million American citizens in the U.S., of various racial and ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations.  All of these many and varied peoples have all of the rights and privileges and responsibilities of full citizenship.  There should be no discrimination because of the backgrounds and beliefs of these varied citizens. There are about 13 million legal permanent residents or green card holders who have many of the same rights as full citizens, except that they can’t vote. There are also about another 15 million people who reside in the country illegally, that do not have citizenship rights.

 An honest look at racial background and sexual orientation of Americans shows that the numbers of various groups comprising the U.S. population are out of proportion to the political disruption and noise made on their behalf.  One would think that our country is one-third black, one-quarter gay, and 10% transgender.

 Per the 2020 census, we are actually 12.4% black, 3% gay or bi-sexual and 0.58% transgender.  This is not trivial.  These percentages correspond to over 41 million black Americans, over 10 million gay or bi Americans, and nearly 2 million transgender Americans.  None of these Americans should be discriminated against and should be accepted on the basis of the “content of their character”.  But neither should they be the dominant factor in the lives of the 324+ million straight Americans and 206+ million white Americans comprising the majority of our population.

 Ray Gruszecki

April 17, 2023  (Written Earlier)