How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?; or black pathology in modern America

Lightbulb changeHow many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?

One, but the lightbulb really has to want to change.

A friend sent me a link to a site that allows people to make voluntary contributions to a reparations fund for American blacks. Really, it’s that simple. The “About” page describes the site as follows:

Reparations began as a social media experiment on Facebook on July 15, 2016.

What if you actually did something meaningful for someone before the end of the year? 

What if a stranger restored your belief in humanity, if only for a moment, by supporting you and allowing you to claim something you need in a material way?

I invite People of Color to ask for what we need to feel better, be happier, be more productive by posting in this space. These may be both material and immaterial requests.

I invite people who identify as White to offer services or contributions to People of Color in need of time, energy, substantive care, and support.

The website is filled with requests from “People of Color” (apparently, unlike whites, you don’t need to “identify” as a Person of Color; you just are one) making requests. As I write, the requests are for weight loss assistance, career advice, dental implants, crisis intervention, an exterminator, sanctuary, dental work, winter clothing, and so on.  As you can see, other than the request for sanctuary, nothing very extraordinary.

I like the site — I like the free market quality of people asking and people giving, instead of the government using police power to coerce and people forced under threat to give money. That’s especially true given that most Americans are either generations away from wrongdoing or have roots in a different country altogether and that the reparations are for a wrong that officially ended in 1863, long before the current claimants were born.  At a certain point, the statute of limitations needs to expire. Still, for those “identifying” as White who feel the need to repent for sins committed decades and centuries before their birth, how great that this site exists.

Having said all that, I’m less thrilled about the site when it comes to People of Color. As to them, the site perpetuates the notion that they are victims and succor can only come from whites. Too many African-Americans sit with their hands out waiting for rescue. This isn’t because there is anything inherently wrong with being an African-American; this is because they’ve been conditioned by the Democrat party and the racists on the Left to believe that they have no control over their own destinies. “Black Power” has been reduced to “Help me, I’m helpless.”

Too many African-Americans sit with their hands out waiting for rescue. This isn’t because there is anything inherently wrong with being an African-American; this is because they’ve been conditioned by the Democrat party and the racists on the Left to believe that they have no control over their own destinies. “Black Power” has been reduced to “Help me because I’m helpless.”

Looked at this way, guilt-ridden whites, horrified by their privilege, are not either repenters or saviors. Instead, to use the therapeutic terms so popular on the Left, they’re “enablers.” They weaken, rather than strengthen, African Americans, and they do so for their own mental satisfaction and feelings of power, rather than as a way truly to serve the needs of the blacks in this sick little societal dance.

When it comes to the relationship between American whites and American blacks, whites should say, “The American government did you great wrongs, and we promise to ensure that the government never again puts its thumb on the scale in favor of one race or another. We also promise that we, as individuals, will treat all Americans as members of one human race, rather than as objects defined by skin color.” For their part, blacks should say, “Apology accepted, subject to the condition that we’ll be watching you closely to make sure you never do it again. Now go away and leave us alone as we begin the work of repairing the terrible damage Democrats have done to our culture through slavery, Jim Crow, the welfare state, and racial grievance mongering.”

Or as the joke at the top of this post says, the only thing that will bring about change in the damaged black community is the community’s own determination to look to itself for that change, and to abandon the dangerous belief that whites bring salvation.