“Damn Old White Men”

I am getting tired of hearing about all of the damage caused by white men.  I hear about colonialism and a host of other sins.

Granted, white men have done a great deal of evil in our world.  On the other hand, other white men have fought those evils.

Slavery is a great example.  As I always say, “Slavery is an evil that degrades both the slave and the owner.”

On the other hand, for every slave owner and supporter there were hundreds of “white men” who were fighting against slavery.

White men helped run the Underground Railroad. White men protested for civil rights.
White men passed the civil rights act. White men and women protested for equality.

At least 1,532,278 mostly white men fought in the Civil War, fighting to preserve the union and to abolish slavery.  At least 360,222 of them died in the Civil War.  Should they and their descendants share the blame equally with the slave owners?

One of the biggest excuses used in the past century is “collective guilt.”  Following World
War II everyone was convinced all Germans were responsible for the Holocaust.  This was a scam to protect the individuals actually responsible by spreading and sharing the guilt. Many war criminals escaped punishment because of the myth of collective guilt.

Blaming all Germans was wrong.  There were German heroes like Detrick Bonhoeffer and many others who fought against the third Reich. Oskar Schindler (you may remember the movie Schindler’s List), the family who hid Anne Frank and thousands of others, many unknown, Germans who stood up for what was right.

Blaming them (and all Germans) for the Holocaust was just an excuse to protect the guilty.

Blaming all white men for the sins of a few or even the sins of many is doing the same thing.

There are plenty of White Men to blame.  They are the ones who supported segregation. They are the ones who supported “massive resistance.”   They are the ones who passed Jim Crow laws.

These men had names. They were members of a political party. They had voting records. They can be identified.

For example, Robert C. Byrd was a United States Senator. He filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, was a member of the KKK, and wrote racist letters. When he died in 2010 he was celebrated by the Democratic Party.  Former presidents Obama and Clinton as well as numerous other Democratic dignitaries attended his funeral.  Joe Biden delivered a 22-minute eulogy.

Shouldn’t Robert Byrd and the white men like him be held responsible for their own sins rather than attempting to spread the blame to all white men, many of whom opposed him?