Last Friday, a movie opened that has not made much in the way of headlines.  In it, two FBI agents determine that the best way to protect their targets from a kidnapping plot is to go undercover as members of the opposite sex and opposite race.  From this anemic plot, hilarity is supposed to ensue.  The very fact that this movie has not made headlines from various special interest groups screaming about racism, means that the two FBI agents are not white men going undercover as black women.  In fact, the two FBI agents are black men who go undercover as the titular White Chicks.

Watching previews for this waste of celluloid, I recalled another comedian’s attempt to cross the racial divide, applying makeup to change the color of his skin from white to black.  Since then, his career has rebounded, but it certainly was in grave danger after the public eviscerating he received from various groups deriding his racism – conveniently ignoring the fact that the actor, Cheers’ ultra-liberal Ted Danson, showed up with then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg and openly claimed to be trying to make a point about racism in America.

Thus begets the question: has our society really changed? There are two possible answers.  Either racial equality has made tremendous strides since Danson’s infamous stunt and we truly are able to openly and freely laugh at our racial differences, or White Chicks is given a pass because it is black people making fun of white people without any questionable possibility of it being the other way around.

Unfortunately, evidence seems to support the latter, as opposed to the former, is true.  If one takes the actual definition of racism, it is actually even more tolerated in today’s culture than at any other time since the Civil War.  The difference is that it is a politically correct sort of racism.  The Supreme Court recently affirmed the racist acceptance practices on the part of public and private universities and post-graduate programs.  There was no loud outcry, however, because this acceptable racism is against white people – a group that, incidentally, will no longer hold a plurality in this country within a decade.

There is one ray of hope, however.  Many more blacks are coming forward to actively confront the racist walls which have been erected by liberals because they fully recognize that the preferential treatment being offered to blacks, under the guise of helping them, is not benefiting them in any long-term way – not that liberal policies like affirmative action and welfare are designed for long-term benefits beyond the next election anyway.

The newest lightning rod for liberal blacks desperate to keep preferential treatment in place for themselves is comedian Bill Cosby.  Addressing Howard University, and with many racists like NAACP head Kweisi Mfume on stage with him, Cosby blasted blacks for not doing enough to help themselves.  According to WorldNetDaily.Com, Cosby said, “‘Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids – $500 sneakers for what? And won’t spend $200 for “Hooked on Phonics.”’  He added: ‘They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: “Why you ain’t,”  “Where you is” … And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. … Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads….  You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth’” (ellipses in original)!

Cosby has struck upon the fundamental problem: thanks to people like Mfume, these poor-speaking blacks can become doctors, or lawyers, or any of scores of other professions because racial preferences gives them a free pass in a number of different categories simply because their skin is a different color.  It make no difference whether they are smart or dumb, just that their skin is a different color.  Those schools that do attempt race-blind admissions are routinely derided as racist institutions and boycotted.  Liberals believe that this is because the inner city schools and poorer schools, that have substantially larger minorities in their demographic makeup, do not have enough money to properly educate their children.  This may be true in some places, but certainly not everywhere.

The real problem is, the youth of today – black and white – have slowly devolved into a society wherein being uneducated and being unable to speak properly is a badge of honor.  This is affirmed by pop culture’s “gansta” rap and movies like White Chicks.  Being unable to communicate in an unintelligible manner is considered “cool.”  This isn’t like President Bush’s incapacity to speak publicly which leads to many deriding him as stupid, but rather a genuine lack of concern for their education because it enables them to lack language and thinking skills that would otherwise help them succeed.

The fact is this: until the so-called “oppressed” blacks are able to come to terms with the fact that they need to help themselves and work just as hard as whites in order to succeed, there will never be any equality among the races.  Affirmative action, aside from being baldly racist, reinforces the unaccepted racism through frustration and anger.  Frustration from the black people who are thrust into situations they are unprepared for and who will always question their capacity to compete fairly and openly, and anger from those who were disqualified for valid reasons but who now have a convenient excuse in racial preferences on which to place their frustrations instead of considering their own personal failures.

The only way to bridge the racial divide that plagues our country is by reinforcing the importance of education and by putting up positive, well-spoken role models like Secretary of State Colen Powell, comedian Bill Cosby, golfer Tiger Woods, or former Representative J. C. Watts (R., Okla.), people who speak properly and correctly.

No matter how liberals twist it, affirmative action and racial preferences do not benefit our society.  Giving a free pass to someone based strictly on the color of their skin is racism.  Just as two wrongs do not make a right, the idea of using racism to abolish racism is ludicrous.

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