Mixed Message Protest

It appears that we are not going to see the end of some activists demands .... that's if we really understood what those demands actually are ...

US Billionaire Demands Atonement Money To Be Paid To Black Americans .....

..... sometimes it looks like its some sort of unspecified changes that compensates for past, very old sins (see below), and then other times, it appears to be to simply hand over vast sums in reparations ... then again, maybe its both of those things.

Or at least that's part of the mixed messages from both sides of the Atlantic, that seems to increasingly be being given out. After all, the issues in the USA, do not directly pertain to the social situation in the UK, Europe or other White nations around the world. Each has its own immigration, social, political, and economic history, and one size really doesn't fit all. So for example, protesters laying on the floor in front of the unarmed British police, chanting 'Dont shoot, I surrender' is actually rather stupid.

In truth, the message of the protests is a bit confusing ..... on one hand there is an uneasy feeling amongst the white majorities, that there is in fact an increasingly thinly veiled, anti-white racism in some of the the protests, where statues of white politicians such as Churchill etc are vandalised, and on the other hand, that this is just a prelude to a demand for preferential treatment, or more cash hand-outs.

In the US for example, Robert L. Johnson a Black American billionaire, for whom race hasn't apparently hindered his making a fortune, and living the American dream, wants $14 trillion paid to Americas Black population as "atonement" for Black American slavery, and its resultant trauma to the subsequent Black population.

He made a public statement in which he asked "Is $14 trillion too much to ask for the atonement of 200 plus years of brutal slavery, de facto and de jure government-sponsored social and economic discrimination and the permanent emotional trauma inflicted upon black Americans by being forced to believe in a hypocritical and unfulfilled pledge that 'all men are created equal'?"

That's $350,767 for every black person in the U.S, and Mr Johnson suggested that direct cash payments be made to each individual, with payments to be spread over the next 10 to 20 years. So perhaps $35,000 pa for a decade? I wonder why he didn't suggest lump sums? .... I can hazard a guess why, but if I could, I couldn't say it out loud these days.

Of course this sort of compensation claim ignores the historical fact that all races have been slaves at one time or another. Or that Arabs and Africans have a far longer history of slaving than whites, and is based solely upon British, European and North American involvement in the Black Slave Trade, which of course only ended in the 1960's with Martin Luther King jnr .... or so one would think from the ignorance displayed by the protesters, many of whom apparently left school before history lessons were started (or even black history month).

The protesters have attacked Winston Churchill's statute (voted Britain's greatest hero) as 'racist'. In the USA, rioters in Philadelphia defaced a statue of Matthias W Baldwin, an early abolitionist and philanthropist, who campaigned against slavery 30-years before it ended. One presumes that these same protesters will tackle the statues of other figures, such as the twelve US Presidents who owned slaves ... including founding father, George Washington who owned around 317 slaves?

Many of the UK protesters, who I suspect are being led through the nose by small groups of left-wing activists, have also admitted that they had no idea who Cecil Rhodes was, despite them supporting the removal of the Rhodes statue at Oxford University.

Lambeth Independent Police Advisory Group Chair But Not History Buff

One activist, Lorraine Jones, who is apparently Lambeth Independent Police Advisory Group chair, and a self styled 'community activist,' even went on national TV in the UK, and when asked by some PC driven news anchor if Churchill's statue should be removed (as if the black community have the sole right to determine this), Ms Jones replied: “I’ve heard many arguments on both sides. Some say that he’s a racist. Some say that he’s a hero. I haven’t personally met him, but what I would say is that that question of whether he should remain should be put to the community.” ... presumably the Black community.

The interviewer was apparently too cowed by PC considerations to point out that he had died in 1965, nor that he had been Prime Minister twice ... however we all suspect that she would have laughed out loud if Ms Jones had been a white right winger.

So for the benefit of the generation who now stalk our streets, determining what's right or wrong in the world in their image .... some facts. The slave trade was abolished by Britain with the Slave Trade Act of 1807. An act which made the Atlantic slave trade from Africa illegal for British ships and subjects. Slavery for any colour peoples was abolished in Britain and its Empire, by the Slavery Abolition Act, of 1833, which initially freed more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa, as well as a small number in Canada.

Britain enforced the Slave Trade Act, with a British naval squadron which patrolled the West African  coastline, and later the East African coast as well, to disrupt the trade to the Americas (North and South). The USA also ran naval patrols for the same purpose from 1819 to 1861 .... before slavery had even been banned in the US itself.

So Britain has been an active anti-slavery country for 213 years ..... and yet, the protesters act as though slavery in Britain's dominions was only ended yesterday. Even the US started to try and halt the trade 201 years ago .... it then fought a bloody civil war, which included the aim of ending slave ownership in the country, and that war ended 165 years ago with black emancipation. So all this was long, long ago.

In the UK, the Race Relations Act of 1976, yes 44 years ago, legally ensured that the position of Black people in UK society has been governed largely by their own abilities or lack thereof, just like me or anyone else in the country. Many communities would look to themselves first, if they had not managed to take full advantage of the fact that they were living in rich western countries, with the educational and employment opportunities that offers for those who are bright and work hard, and not keeping looking to blame historical events from centuries ago.

But we have now reached the ridiculous situation, where the message that black lives matter, not only ignores the deep social problems, of single parent families, low educational attainment, guns and violence that are readily apparent inside the Black communities world wide, BUT, seemingly hands out the message that other lives don't matter?

For instance, one of these images below caused 'shame,' while the other would be perfectly acceptable.

#BLACKLIVESMATTER is socially OK.

The hashtag #blacklivesmatter is acceptable, and being bandied about like it makes some sort of actual sense in a UK context, given the UK history is different than the USA.

#WHITELIVESMATTER is described as 'Shameful' to many ....

.... But the hashtag #whitelivesmatter is deemed 'shameful', and being reviled as even racist.

So is the message that White people to take from this, that only Black lives matter, and that white lives don't? .... I'm sure that it's probably not, as if so, it would be very counter-productive. But by excluding other races from using the hashtag #....livesmatter that's the impression being given out.

Perhaps the protesters need to clarify exactly why only one hashtag is acceptable, and at least then the silent majority who are watching this play out, can decide whether they are prepared to accept it as valid.