This Used To Be Called Racism

Right is right, no matter how many people say it’s wrong. And wrong is wrong, no matter how many people say it’s right.

Was that Winston Churchill or Jesus or Abraham Lincoln who said that?

Nope. It was TV dad Ward Cleaver from “Leave It To Beaver”. But it’s a line and a lesson that I still remember from childhood.

I tend to view race in this way, too. If something is wrong for one race to do to another, it should be true in either direction. Or if one race does something that raises eyebrows, the same reaction should result if other races do the same thing.

For a very long time in this country, many whites would only do business with other whites. That was a huge problem–morally, socially, and every which way.

People can–and SHOULD–discriminate against IDEAS and VALUES. But not skin color.

We called it racism and we have battled against it for generations.

Now I see a story today about a black couple in Oak Park, Illinois, who have set out to do something that would make your stomach turn if a white couple did it.

They are setting out–methodically and passionately–to do business for ONE YEAR exclusively with black businesses. Their intention is to bolster black commerce in hopes of bolstering black communities, particularly impoverished ones.

And believe it or not, the response they continue to get remains largely supportive.

But what if a white couple did this. They set out to buy only WHITE products, from white businesses and white retailers.

It’s a dastardly double standard. It’s the double standard that creates one set of rules for whites, and another for everyone else.

Latinos can have their own music awards and blacks can have their own beauty pageants and networks. But imagine the uproar and anarchy that would ensue if whites had the same. A WHITE Miss America pageant?? WET–White Entertainment Television? IVORY magazine by, for, and about white people?? Come on now!

I usually don’t blog about the same things that I discuss on the air, at least not in the same day. But today might have to be an exception. This story unnerves me beyond description.

How about just giving business to people who you LIKE doing business with? Why not go to the supermarket down the street instead of driving 14 miles out of your way (where are the environmentalists NOW, accusing this couple of destroying the planet??)? I can understand doing that if the quality and service and selection were that much better. But for goodness sakes, to do it merely because of the SKIN COLOR of the owners is EXTREMELY racist, in my opinion. And what if the white owned business NEEDS your dollars more than the black owned business? Not all white businesses are well off, and not all black businesses are on the skids.

This is, frankly, shameful.

Rest in peace, Ward Cleaver. But you were right.