Chapter 19 Racism

As we watch the riots on the news we see images no movie has ever captured. We see an America none of us ever imagined and none of us ever expected to see in our life time. Christians look at this and wonder if this is the end of the world. The fact they sit and wonder, and know not what to do explains how unprepared they are and how little they have been educated in the signs of the times and God’s plan of salvation. There is a spiritual side to all of this. But today is not the day to explain the spiritual side of all of this. Not until we understand the physical side of what is happening. Not until we understand how the human mind has been manipulated over the years and how our senses have been dulled to the point, many people cannot comprehend their own actions, don’t understand their motives, and cannot calculate the results of their actions. Few people can recognize the real attacks taking place or the real war being planned and fought in the back ground. And of course there is also the spiritual side of that war. But we first have to take the mask off the physical war and determine what that war is, who the enemy is, and what their ultimate goal is. It is not a pretty sight. But if we ignore it, our future is limited to say the least.

What is racism? If we look at the simple definition we have a place to begin gathering the information we need to see if the actions taken today are aimed at equality or headed in the opposite direction.

racism rā′sĭz″əm►

n. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.

n. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

n. The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes.

The definition of racism explains why we see statues destroyed, books banned, and our history being attacked, altered, and destroyed. We also see why the present healthcare system was established to discriminate against the elderly. Certain powers want to wipe out the past so they can control the future. When we look at the facts, we have to gather concrete data. Not rumors. Not exaggerations. Not information one group uses to gain control over their followers. We need to look at raw basic facts with eye witnesses and events recorded by reliable, unbiased sources. Which is rather rare these days. In fact, we need to look at both sides of racism to develop an unbiased view. But first we need to take a look at the history of racism.

As its history indicates, the popular use of the word racism is relatively recent. The word came into widespread usage in the Western world in the 1930s, when it was used to describe the social and political ideology of Nazism, which treated “race” as a naturally given political unit.[21] It is commonly agreed that racism existed before the coinage of the word, but there is not a wide agreement on a single definition of what racism is and what it is not.[10] Today, some scholars of racism prefer to use the concept in the plural racisms, in order to emphasize its many different forms that do not easily fall under a single definition. They also argue that different forms of racism have characterized different historical periods and geographical areas.[22] Garner (2009: p. 11) summarizes different existing definitions of racism and identifies three common elements contained in those definitions of racism. First, a historical, hierarchical power relationship between groups; second, a set of ideas (an ideology) about racial differences; and, third, discriminatory actions (practices).[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

The more we study racism the more we find, people disagree on the basic term of racism and racism seems to be a word that is easily molded to suit ones own political agenda. We can look at many different sources and find how the word racism is a type of mystery in itself and yet a very strong word invoking deep emotions that often lead to hostility. My question today is, does racism exist in America today?

Racism and discrimination are two different things. Racism centers on a person’s natural origin, the country or continent they came from, and normally centers on skin color. Although history has shown people of the same skin color have used racism to destroy people from another race, country, and belief. Discrimination covers race, creed, color, national origin, religion, sexual preferences, and age. Over the past fifteen years I have become some what of an expert on age discrimination. Oh the stories I could tell. And the things I have personally experienced in age discrimination. They would make your stomach turn. And the sad thing about that is, the younger generation has been brainwashed into believing it will never happen to them. I have news for you. It was never supposed to happen to my generation. But it did.

Age discrimination today was brought about by the healthcare system. The entire company I worked for was called into a meeting. A representative from the health insurance company was called in to explain why health insurance costs doubled over the past two years. The representative simply explained. “You have too many old people working for you and until you change that, your premiums are going to continue to double every year.” That was not a threat, that was a promise that put fear into the hearts of every working man and woman, and every business owner. I was 47 and ½ years old at the time. A few months later I was called into the office and told my services would no longer be required. I was fired because of my age. Along with a host of others.

We went out into the business world to find, employers were not hiring people with birth dates in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Most people had little choice but to start their own businesses and make a living using their wits and experience. It was not always easy. Few people if any received any government assistance. We had to do it on our own. The stock market crash didn’t help any. For most of us it meant the end of our retirement accounts. The government bailed out the banks, but we didn’t see a single crumb from that deal. Our money was still there, but it was divided up among a handful of elite businesses and the large banks who created their own ruin. Imagine the feeling our generation felt when we saw our retirement funds given to a handful of major banks so they could provide loans to the younger generation. And we were left with nothing.

Time for a little history lesson on the computer. Why? Because, to avoid the tag of age discrimination, corporate America claims the older generation does not understand the computer age we live in. Understand it, we invented it. And I can prove that fact. I lived through it.

Back in the mid 1970’s I was working in engineering. I was the first one in the company to own a calculator. I remember the older engineers didn’t trust my calculator. Some of them asked me to teach them how to use my calculator. I watched them sit there and run a few calculations though the calculator, compare the result to the result on their slide rules, and say, “well it is close.” Later came the Texas Instruments programmable calculators with a rather thick instruction book. We had to learn the computer in those calculators followed specific commands in an exact order. One wrong or missing letter, number, or step and no result would be displayed. We were restricted by the program someone placed in that small computer and we had no choice but to follow commands and instructions to the letter.

Later IBM and Apple came out with what was referred to as a desktop or personal computer. Back in those days there were no classes for these new computers. Schools used key punch computers and cards with holes punched in them. I know because I took those classes. In the classes we took we had to teach the computer how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It was all very basic. On the home computer we had to learn how to manually install programs. We had very few books to learn from. A good computer cost over $4000 and you would laugh at it today. The hard drive was maybe 54 megabytes and the RAM was maybe 8 megabytes. The screen was normally monochrome. That was it. There was no Internet. We had to learn mostly on our own. There were few people to network with. And networking was face to face. Because early computers were, not all that reliable, we had to learn how to take the computer apart and trouble shoot it on our own. We also learned to upgrade the computer because we saw new advances every month. It was a rather expensive hobby, but one that gave us the basic skills to lead the world in the computer revolution.

I remember the first company I worked for that bought a computer for engineering. It was the size of a room and you guessed it, crashed all the time. We grew used to saving our work constantly. I was working on a rather sophisticated piece. The design was the same on both sides. You could split the framework for that farm tractor down the middle and both sides were exactly the same. It took me over a month to draw that tractor frame on a sheet of paper 36 inches high and about 20 feet long. The company computer didn’t do any calculations. All it did was place points and then you connected the points with lines and curves. I had to calculate every point on that frame using a calculator and just about every geometric equation I knew. It was a real pain in the butt. Each point had to be located from a predetermined zero-zero point. Every part on that tractor was referenced from that predetermined zero-zero point. Finally I was ready to sit down at that computer terminal and put that puppy into the computer. This was by far the biggest and most important project and part to be drawn on that computer system. So I sat down, plotted out my points, and added in all the lines and curves until I had the perfect stick figure of that frame in front of me on that screen. I checked and double checked everything. Then it was ready for the final step. I had half it the frame drawn. All I had to do was select the entire frame and copy/flip it over the center line and it was done. I looked and looked for the commands I knew I had to do. There was a select command and a copy command. Where the heck was the flip command? I talked to the tech guy who rolled out the manual that came with a special cart. About four feet long on wheels. I searched through that manual from one end to the other. The computer didn’t have a flip command. I sat there thinking to myself, “why would anyone create a computer system that costs thousands of dollars and not have a flip command?” I talked to my boss and explained the concept. It made sense to him so he went to his boss, who went to his boss, who went to the president of the company. I pitched my idea to a meeting with the president of the company and all the vice presidents. They thought is may be a good idea. They called in the representative from the computer company who went back to his company and they came back with a quote to write a new computer program that would select an object, copy the selection, and flip it. That program would cost $2000. The president and vice presidents debated the subject for a month. They could not see any future need for such a computer program. Finally I talked to the president at the coffee machine and asked him how much in wages the company spent in debating the subject. A few days later we had a new program that worked like a charm.

So what does that explain? When it comes to age discrimination, that discrimination is based on ignorance. Not only ignorance but false information feed to people over years by people with an ulterior motive and money is always at the root. No one wants the world, especially America to know older people know much more about computers than the younger generation could ever hope to know. Flipping a stupid selection is only one example of the vision the older generation had for the computer. We had far greater visions and initiated programs in steps. The older generation had visions you couldn’t imagine. We looked at the computer as a vital tool. A tool we could program to do anything we wanted or needed it to do, And we were so innocent, we only saw the good computers could do. In industry we found ways of combining a number of programs and data bases so an engineer could look at a drawing, click on a part, and gather all the data on the cost of that part, installation time, and overall, total cost and profit for that part. One of the main jobs of an engineer is to design a better product at a lower cost than anyone else was able to achieve. That was the American way and a large part of the American spirit. That is what we thrived on and that is what we mellowed out on at the end of a rough week. We took pride in accomplishing the impossible. Where is that American pride today and how come people stopped talking about American ingenuity?

I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I labored on a problem for hours. Then got up and talked to one of the older engineers who came up with solution in less than a minute. I developed an increased respect for my elders. A respect I needed to survive and excel in the engineering field. Today most of those older engineers have passed away. But their experience still lives on in me. But I see a movement to bury that knowledge and experience.

I want people to understand where I am coming from so they can understand what I see and what I feel when I see images and read stories about our history being erased. As one example let’s take a simple look at destroying pride in our work. As an engineer I was always hired and given the task of designing a far better product and producing that product at a lower price. That included the design of the product and the machinery to produce that product. All those steps included teamwork, networking, dedications, and loyalty to the company. Reaching the highest goal required gathering ideas and concepts from every available source. The vast majority of the ideas I worked with came from the shop floor. There has never been a substitute for the experience of the people in the shop floor producing parts everyday. Sooner or later they would get a great idea to save time and money. Seldom would they share their idea unless they were asked. So I spent a lot of time on the shop and outside the company with people from the shop. I was a rare hands on engineer. We are looking into discrimination and racism in this article. Which have taken a back seat to the American way of doing things. In the 1970’s and 1980’s we were in a race with the world to produce the best products on the face of the earth. National pride forced discrimination and racism out the door. As true blue Americans we worked side by side and color didn’t matter. Religion didn’t matter. National origin didn’t matter. As a matter of fact, nationality was often a magnet for new ideas and concepts. I lived to see racism fall under the heals of national pride known as MADE IN AMERICA. Racism gave way to red, white, and blue, and the American way.

When I see statues taken down and books banned I take that personally. Only on the basis that I’ve lived through the shift from pride in American made to a concentrated effort to convince the American public that price is more important. Today we have been programmed to be a throw away society. No one bothers to calculate the actual cost of buying two, three, or more of the same product compared to spending 10% to 20% more for the same product made in America that is built to last a lifetime. To people like me that is a no brainer. But to a society that has the latest this or that and has been brainwashed into thinking every product has a limited life, Americans are getting ripped off left and right by concepts that have no place in a real America. That concept has reached its ultimate goal. Today the older generation has been deemed expendable. Why? The powers to be fear what the older generation has to offer. But is is time to teach this younger generation before it is too late.

Racism. Can you show me racism today. Can you give me a list of times you experienced racism? Come on. I gave you examples of my discrimination. And I have not even warmed up. When I tell you where all this is leading, you will have no choice but to sit back and weigh the facts. Only then can you see what the future holds.

I remember the race riots in the 1960’s. That was racism. People today don’t want you to know what real racism was. Because you would look at today and realize how manipulated you have become. In the 1960 elections certain counties blocked blacks from voting. Now that was racism. Pure, evil, misguided racism. People were blocked from voting based on the color of their skin. In certain counties colored people had to go to certain schools, different restaurants, drink from different water fountains, ride in the back of buses, were banned from looking upon a white woman, lived in restricted areas, and refused employment based on the color of their skin.

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

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/racism-in-the-1960s.php

The movements today hate history and the older generation because they are using racism as a means to their end. They look at the older generation with contempt because we lived through racism and we can tell people what that was like in real life and how we stood up against it and finally overcame racism because it was unacceptable to the majority of Americans in the 1960’s and before the 1960’s. But we never hear about the majority of Americans. Special interests groups have taught the younger generation to concentrate on the beliefs and actions of a handful of radical thinkers who want to change America to think their way. Today we have the same concept unfolding except the roles and colors have been changed and somehow radical groups have been able to blind people to real racism to such a degree their followers are practicing the worst forms of racism but are blind to that fact.

I remember when I was in kindergarten. I was five years old and a new kid came to class. He was from India and very dark skinned. Very dark. We went out for recess and a group of kids surrounded that boy from India and shouted the N word. You know what I mean. I watched for less than one minute before my natural instincts and the common sense of a five year old with the proper up bringing jumped into action. I threw myself between that poor boy and his attackers. Little did I know the other five year old kids would look at that as a challenge and it got rather physical. I was fending off six other five year old kids trying to protect a dark skinned kid from India who would not stand up for himself. My first reaction was to tell those kids how stupid they were. The kid was not a N… he was from India. I knew the difference. But it didn’t matter. Attacking someone because they were different was just stupid. Others watched but didn’t want to get involved. Soon some of the older kids came over. At that point my defense of that boy was a lost cause. There was no way I would prevail. I got my ass kicked. But my young mind did have a lot to think about. That was the last day that boy attended that school. I learned a few lessons. The teacher and school as a whole ignored the situation. I made a few enemies. I saw how people didn’t want to stick up for what was right, and even though the majority understood and supported my actions, they refused to get involved. I found out at a young age what it felt like to be a minority. And I was pretty much determined to stick to my guns. I also found out about that silent majority. People taking little actions for change without making a scene.

Our family watched Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy on TV. For the most part we all agreed with them, and saw a need for change. And then one by one we saw them all get killed. I remember how my mom and others cried when we heard the news about President John Kennedy. People cried while I remained silent. I was only six years old but my first thoughts were, who shot Kennedy and why? I knew the answer. We actually had something in common. We stuck up for someone and a small minority of radical thinking people disagreed. I knew I had to look into that.

It turns out people used that theory of evolution to justify racism. President Kennedy used the space program to teach the US and the world the difference between a theory and a scientific fact. One by one theories about space travel became facts. President Kennedy knew the silent majority was not going to openly get involved, so he gave them the weapons they needed to combat racism. People have to realize they have more support that what appears to the naked eye. The majority detests racism and as a natural reaction support the under dog. People realize what it takes to succeed in this world and gather information and ideas from people different than themselves. The more differences the average American sees, the more important that person is in their eyes. Racism was fought on more fronts than anyone could ever imagine. Ideas were gathered from all kinds of different cultures and back grounds to make advancements in every imaginable area from music, science, art, and fashion to name a few. No one knew where the next great idea would come from and would not leave a single stone upturned. Racism fell to every industrial, technical, and cultural advancement in the United State. The fall of racism marked the greatest advancement in every phase of America. For the most part racism fell because it marked people as behind the times, ignorant, against advancement, and stuck in their dead end ways. In fact racism went away because it was basically ignored and it was in poor taste to discuss racism. People of different colors and cultures were meeting in churches, stores, jobs, and everyday life. To brand people for that type of lifestyle was dead and buried. But a small minority of people decided to resurrect racism from the grave and blow it out of proportion.

Sure we see racism today. But racism today is nothing close to what it was 60 years ago. People have been avoiding the subject for so long, we are at a loss of words when the subject rears its ugly head in 2020. Which is one major mistake today. No one has suggested we look back on history to see what racism is and how far America and the world has come. Racial factions are working over time to erase history. There is a reason for that. They have an agenda and a plan to use racism. But first they have to create a new racist culture to work with.

I can’t describe the feelings we had as we watched President John Kennedy die, then Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. We watched as deep radical factions worked to snuff out the greatest change the US would endure. A long over due change the US needed. Changes brought about by the silent majority who worked with their friends and neighbors to establish equality on the ever present one on one basis. Sure government passed a lot of laws. Sure government said they would solve the problem. But nothing government did came close to what was accomplished when two guys with different skin colors sat down to split a six pack. They talked about their kids and the dreams they had. They found out they had more in common than expected. They each had different skills and enjoyed helping one another out. They became close friends with an understanding the world could not shake. The moral majority worked on the problem on a one on one basis and color disappeared. Their little corner of the world became a better place and you know what, no one complained. Because the silent majority wanted to snuff out racism. And it did.

Today in 2020 we have radical factions who know the history of racism. They know how the US over came racism and if they wanted to, they could give it a moment of thought to determine the next step. But we stand no chance of determining the next step until we examine every step it took us to get to this stage. But those factions insist we need to erase every trace of our steps. We need to sweep the trail clean. We need to start with a new slate and go from there? Go from where? The protests have been going on for two months and all the US hears is more complaints but not a single idea of what to do next. We hear cries for change, but not a single suggestion on what that first step is. This makes as much sense as standing over a wounded man and kicking him because that is how he got in that position. More damage does not heal a wounded body. That is medieval thinking. Killing other people and destroying property does not bring back the person who lost their life. No one should have to explain that. Why do we have to explain that in today’s society?

So far we’ve learned US pride in Made in America has been ripped from our society. Why? Someone wants us to settle for inferior products made overseas and be happy with them. We also see that racism today is but a shadow of what it was 60 years ago and the vast majority of Americans did their own little part to bury racism. But we know there is still work to do. So what is the problem? What is stopping colored Americans from sitting down with white Americans, and Americans of all colors, splitting a six pack and solving America’s problems? The sooner we find out we are all on the same page, the sooner we can get to work on solutions. Not solutions from the government, but the good old American way. Average people working together to point out a problem. And if you have not already tried this, it always works. Every once in a while we have to remind people who they work for. We have to remind people we are taxpayers and without the American taxpayer, no one is going anywhere. That really works. If you have never went to a town hall meeting or city counsel meeting, that is the one line that gets their attention. And gets immediate results.

We hear the cry to defund police. Let’s examine the facts for a moment. Who funds police departments? For the most past police departments are funded by local property taxes.

Police departments are funded by the governmental body that authorized their creation, such as city, county, and state governments. (Money from fines help fund the governmental body.) They also receive funding through state and federal grants, especially for particular projects like “click-it-or-ticket” and “drink,drive/go-to-jail.” These types of grants fund the hiring of additional officers and/or overtime needed to carry out these projects. President Clinton created a project called something like “100,000 cops on the street” that was supposed to provide funding for an additional 100,000 cops for a period of time. Unfortunately, it created more of a burden than did good. If state law permits, police departments can also use seized money or property. https://www.answers.com/Q/How_do_police_departments_get_funding

We can agree the majority of police funding comes from local sources. The federal government has little control over local police matters. In other words, local issues and local problems have to be handled by local governments. Let’s take that a step further. By local taxpayers. The people funding the local police. There is no national police force. When we look at the facts, those national protests asking for federal reforms are leading everyone in the wrong direction. How did that happen?

People telling all the cities, towns, and villages across the US how to spend and not spend their tax dollars is wrong. The vast majority of cities, towns, and villages in the US have never seen some of the problems protesters are complaining about. What right do people from the outside have to come in and tell other cities how to run their government? Especially when they have not solved the problems in their own cities and neighborhood? If they had solutions that may be a different story. But one should never tell other people how to run their life when they lack the experience to teach. This has been the case across the nation with those demonstrations. Demonstrators don’t have any ideas or solutions. They only know how to make demands without knowing the issues and process to bring about required changes. A handful of people have done what no person in America should be allowed to do. Judge and condemn an entire group of people based on the actions of a few. That in itself is discrimination and an insult to the silent majority that has worked hard and dedicated their lives to ending discrimination in every way, shape, and form.

It’s time we step back and use a little common sense. We need to gather data. What have individual cities done to enhance their police force to ensure the safety of all its citizens. We cannot allow a small group of radicals to tear down and destroy the improvements made over the years. We cannot allow a small group of radicals to condemn police in small towns and villages who never had an issue like those broadcast by the media. We cannot allow a small group of radicals dictate how local properties taxes are spent and how local residents work to secure their safety and well being. And we certainly cannot allow a group of radicals to install a national police force. The silent majority will never allow that to happen.

We need open government on the local level. We need individual cities to deal with their problems. We need taxpayers and every citizen to go back to the basics for change. Get involved in local government. Insure local changes are made. Decide the best ways to invest your tax dollars in the changes that improve law enforcement for all. And that each case is reviewed on a case by case basis. Your tax dollars pay those wages. You have a much loader voice in your community because the people who work for you live in that community. We have to go back to good old fashion know how and ingenuity to make those changes. When you see those changes take place you will be glad you kept the federal government out of your hair along with all the red tape federal control comes with.

Time for a little review. We have to look for the enemy within. Most older people I know had this figured out from the very beginning. Who wants us to forgot our American values? Who wants us to forget what Made in America means? Who wants to erase our history? Who wants to silence the older, silent majority? Who is afraid of the experience older people have to share and the ideas they have? Who wants America to cast labels and symbols on people based on the actions of a few? Who in history turned people against one another based on race, creed, and color? What did those radical groups gain and what was their ultimate goal? That is only a short list of details to help lead you to the answers you need before you figure out what the next step is.