Reblogged:Wrong Focus Diminished February

[Gus Van Horn blog]

Commenting on how best to celebrate Black History Month, Walter Williams noted the following:

Portrait of Carter Woodson via Wikipedia.

If one totaled black income and thought of us as a separate nation with our own gross domestic product, black Americans would rank among the world's 20 richest nations. It was a black American, Colin Powell, who, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed the world's mightiest military. There are a few black Americans who are among the world's richest and most famous personalities. The significance of these achievements is that in 1865, neither a former slave nor a former slave owner would have believed that such gains would be possible in a little over a century. As such, it speaks well of the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just as importantly, it speaks well of a nation in which such gains were possible. Those gains would have been impossible anywhere other than the U.S. [bold added]

I agree with Williams's overall point, that black leaders in general focus too much on past injustices and too little on past and present success. Not only should last month have been more celebratory, such a focus deprived many of a chance to profit from the positive lessons of history.

-- CAV

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