bulent people quiet.rnIf I were a black political leader in the United States, the lastrnthing I should do is call for American involvement in Haiti; indeed,rnat all costs, I should do everything I could to make peoplernforget there ever was a Haiti. But their protests, demonstrations,rnand hunger strikes all serve to remind us that thernblack political class does not want anything like equality—ifrnblack leaders wanted equality, they would also be demandingrninvasions of Ireland, Yugoslavia, China, and the Caucasus.rnWhat they want is power, a system of reverse Jim Crow that rewardsrnblacks for being black and punishes whites for beingrnwhite. The polite name for this system is affirmative action.rnBy 1995 American neoconservatives will have opened a newrnchapter in racial discourse. If one can read the signs correctly,rnthey will soon be following the lead of trailblazers like MichaelrnLevin, who have been arguing that affirmative action is evil becausernit is based on the false premise of racial equality. I am lessrnthan thrilled at the prospect of liberal intellectuals goingrnthrough one more well-advertised round of second thoughts.rnWho cares what they think about anything? In their hatred ofrnAmerican bourgeois civilization, Northeastern intellectualsrnhave used every weapon at their disposal: they ridiculed ourrnwriters and artists and demonized our national history, they liberalizedrnour criminal justice system, they imposed the socialismrnthat is sapping America’s economic vitahty, and they createdrnthe civil rights revolution that has sparked the race war inrnwhich we find ourselves today. To hell with them all, I say. Ifrnblack and white Americans are going to learn to live with eachrnother, it will be no thanks to the intellectual class that has designedrnthe cockpit and equipped both sides with spurs.rnOf course the human races and ethnic groups are different.rnOnly an idiot or a liar would attempt to deny what is patent tornanyone. Skin color and hair type are only symbols of a constellationrnof genetic differences that are responsible for grossrnstatistical variations in physical strength and agility, emotionalrnand behavioral norms, and the various components ofrnintelligence. Since this civilization and culture were createdrnby ethnic groups from Northern Europe, it is inevitable thatrnsuch groups will do well in a society that they are by naturernadapted to live in.rnAll that is obvious and not worth fighting over, except for thernfact that the intellectuals have been lying to us for almost thernentire century. It is also comparatively trivial for a free society,rnbecause statistical generalizations cannot predict individualrnoutcomes. In any mixed society, some minority members willrnalways prove to be better fitted to succeed than some majorityrnmembers. Even in the Old South, there were blacks—rnslaves as well as free—who felt themselves socially superior tornwhite trash like Huck Einn’s pap (or Abe Lincoln’s pap, for thatrnmatter). Pap Finn, on seeing a free Negro in town, could notrnbelieve his eyes:rnThere was a free nigger there, from Ohio; a mulatter,rnmost as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirtrnon you ever seen, too, and the shiniest hat…. Andrnwhat do you think? They said he was a p’fessor in a college,rnand could talk all kinds of languages, and knowedrneverything. And that ain’t the wust. They said herncould vote, when he was at home. Well, that let mernout. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It wasrn’lection day, and I was about to go and vote, myself, if Irnwarn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told mernthere was a state in this country where they’d let thatrnnigger vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote again.rnPap Finn did not have to go to Ohio to find successfulrnblacks. In the older Southern states, a class of free black artisansrnand tradesmen thrived in cities like Baltimore, Richmond,rnand Charleston, and after the war, the black middle class grewrnin numbers and prosperity throughout the country, even despiternthe laws in virtually every state that restricted their rightrnto full participation in political life. Looking back at the I940’srnand 50’s, it is hard for an honest man not to regard thoserndecades as the highwater mark of black life in these UnitedrnStates.rnj T ^ eove me alonerny / to moke my ownrn”^w mistakes, and I mayrneventually come round to treatingrnpeople as human beings, but forcernme to share my wealth, do businessrnand socialize with ‘aliens,’ I willrnbalk like a mule and find reasons tornhate them.rnIt is not that things were perfect, by any means, not that decentrnblack people were not subjected to the degrading ritualsrnby which inferior whites made themselves feel good at their expense.rnBut Jim Crow laws were falling into neglect by a slowrnand organic process of national evolution, and able and talentedrnmen and women were working their way to success and respectability,rnno thanks to the usually benign neglect of whites.rnA reasonable and civilized white American in those yearsrncould not fail to admire the progress and sympathize with thernlegal struggle to strike down the last formal barriers to full legalrnand political equality. Anyone writing such a sentence isrnobviously thinking of himself as “reasonable and civilized,” andrnin fact, in the folly of youth, I participated on the fringes of arncivil rights movement that was, as I remember a black nationalistrntelling me, none of my business. That nationalist is now,rnby the way, a successful proponent of black enterprise inrnCharleston.rnIf I had either the time or the inclination, I could try to explainrnhow the civil rights movement was wrong from the start,rnrooting itself in the false assumption that blacks could only bernhappy if they were able to rub shoulders with whites in schoolsrnand restaurants and in the evil premise that moral decisions canrnbe coerced by government. Leave me alone to make my ownrnmistakes, and I may eventually come round to treating peoplernas human beings, but force me to share my wealth, do businessrnand socialize with “aliens,” I will balk like a mule and find reasonsrnto hate them.rnAUGUST 1994/13rnrnrn