Besides spewing hate, these oversized “Declaration of War” headlines promote one lie after another. They assume that “angry” protests are in response to real grievances, and are not over conditions that don’t exist. There is no systematic police brutality in America. George Floyd was killed by one bad cop in Minnesota who should have been fired years ago. His department was run by a black police chief, appointed in a corrupt, mismanaged, one party city government run by Ilhan Omar Democrats. Three years earlier, a bad black cop shot and killed a white woman who had called 911 for help.
While repeatedly blaming “racism” for the cop’s action, not a single article discussed why the black police chief kept him on the job after previous complaints of bad temper, excess force and poor judgment. Not a single article discussed how civil service laws and public employee unions often make it almost impossible to fire bad cops, or teachers, or public health experts.
Instead of explaining the true cause of this tragedy and suggesting real solutions, the Press of Atlantic City (like most mainstream newspapers, and radio and TV “news”) falsely blamed “racism”. Blaming “racism” is really blaming all whites. Or at least those who are Republicans, Christians, or not “woke” enough. Is this any different from when Nazi’s in the 1930’s blamed Jews for every problem in Germany?
Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1817. He escaped to freedom at age 21 after first teaching himself to read and write. He was an influential writer and leader of the Republican Party who greatly influenced President Abraham Lincoln. Because of him roughly 190,000 young black men served in the Union Army during the Civil War and won the respect of the white soldiers they served with. That help persuade white Americans to not only end slavery with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but to also guarantee freed blacks full citizenship and voting rights with the 14th and 15th Amendments as well between 1865 and 1870.
There is no “white privilege” or “systemic” or “institutional” racism in America today. Americans ended slavery by amending our Constitution in 1865. We amended our Constitution twice more in 1868 and 1870 to guarantee equal rights for blacks. That was done after nearly two million young American men fought to end slavery, of which some 310,000 died. Never before in history did any nation sacrifice so much to win the freedom of somebody else.
Unfortunately, hatred and bigotry continued in the South for many years against both black and white Republicans. However, when millions of blacks fled the South during the “Great Migration” of 1870 to 1930, most found opportunity and enjoyed safe and comfortable, if not prosperous lives in places like New York City and Brooklyn New York, and Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Sarah Spencer Washington was born in West Virginia, but her parents sent her to a private high school and college to become a school teacher. However, she took an interest in fashion, and opened a small hair salon on Baltic Avenue in Atlantic City, NJ in 1913 at age 24. When she could not find products for African-American hair, she took chemistry courses at Columbia University and produced her own products. In 1919, she founded Apex Beauty and turned it into a multimillion dollar nationwide business by the time this photo was taken in 1925. When local golf courses would not admit blacks, she built and operated her own Apex Golf Course which is now known as the Pomona Golf and Country Club. Her story, like those of many other blacks who succeeded when they moved out of the South during the “Great Migration”, is rarely taught during Black History Month. That is because it does not fit the “progressive” narrative of 400 years of oppression and struggle.
The KKK was always limited to the South, and it was long dead by 1915. However, it was revived that year and expanded throughout much of the nation, along with many hateful stereotypes of blacks, by the Hollywood blockbuster movie “Birth of a Nation”. That movie was based a book of fake history written by racist southern Democrat Woodrow Wilson before he became President. That movie helped Wilson win re-election in 1916 by suppressing the black vote, which was then overwhelmingly Republican. The movie was so effective in turning public opinion against blacks and Republicans that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels later used it as a model for his hateful propaganda movies against Jews
However, Republicans won the elections of 1920 promising a “return to normalcy” and pushed back against that bigotry. Because of their efforts, and those of new Democrats like President Harry Truman who became President in 1948, widespread, systematic bigotry has not been around in most of America for at least seventy years ago. It was gone from most of the South by 1970.
Since the 1920’s outside the South, and 1970’s in the South, most prejudice and discrimination faced by blacks was occasional and isolated. In many ways, it was similar to that faced by many white Americans who were Jewish, Irish, Italian, or even “hillbillies” or “hicks” from rural areas. Unlike in most other countries, prejudice and discrimination in America could usually be overcome through education, discipline, work, achievement and patience.
Every older American has a duty to tell their children and grandchildren stories of the obstacles faced by their parents and grandparents—and how they overcame those obstacles. At one time, those stories were told in our schools, colleges, media, and Hollywood entertainment. However, those stories have not been told in America since “Avalon”, “Moscow on the Hudson” and “An American Tail” in the 1980’s.
Because those stories are no longer told, too many Americans falsely believe that only blacks faced discrimination, while all whites were “privileged”.
Instead of telling that truth, “mainstream” daily newspapers like the Press of Atlantic City often resemble the Nazi newspapers of the 1930’s. Sensational Press headlines tell of public anger over very rare incidents where someone who is black is hurt by someone who is white. The Press falsely blames these incidents on “racism” (all whites) rather than the individuals involved. Incidents where blacks are hurt or killed by other blacks or where whites are hurt or killed by blacks are rarely reported. When a white woman was beaten and murdered by a black man in Bridgeton last month, the photos of victim and murderer were not placed side by side, as with stories where the races are reversed.
Almost every front page story of “Die Stuermer” (The Front Line Attack Soldier) complained of “Jewish privilege” in Germany. They also falsely blamed Jews for causing every problem in the country. The headline states “Who is the Enemy?” The words at the bottom of the page say “The Jews are what cause our misfortune”.
Does the slogan “Black Lives Matter” deliver that same message? Does it not falsely imply that black lives don’t matter to white Americans ? Does it not also falsely imply that white Americans today are responsible for every problem in black communities?
Seth Grossman, Executive Director
