Re: 'Revisiting Reparations' [Village News, Terrell letter, 4/6/23]

Separating the wheat from the chaff.

In his latest sanctimonious rant, "JT" asserts that the Democrat Party is not to blame for slavery or racism in America, when the preponderance of historical evidence suggests otherwise.

I admire "JT's" hubris, even though his assumptions bear little resemblance to the historical record. In truth, Democrats obstructed blacks from voting, owning property, and exercising their inalienable rights for more than 100 years following the end of the Civil War.

In 1964, President Johnson, a foul-mouthed Democrat and habitual user of the "N" word, launched a new social program, "the War on Poverty." Disguised as a poverty panacea, it encouraged black voters to vote against their best interests in exchange for federal subsidies.

Over time, this new welfare program was directly responsible for the disintegration of black families, leading to decades of government dependency and generational poverty.

In the 1950s, 9% of Black women were listed as the head of the household. But following the advent of Johnson's "War on Poverty," that number swelled to 21% by the end of the 1960s. Today, women head a staggering 52% of Black households. Johnson's War on Poverty has been an abysmal failure that has entrapped millions of Black families in poverty to this day.

Now "JT" rails on and on about Southerners, calling them bigots. Funny, it didn't stop Democrats from voting for Jimmy Carter for President in 1976, a man whose ancestors enslaved Blacks. Nor did they have a problem voting for southern-born and raised Bill Clinton for President in 1992, whose mentors like William Fulbright and Senator Robert Byrd were lifelong racists and anti-segregationist zealots.

I suppose in "JT's" depraved mind, southerners like Republican Congressmen Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt, Senator Tim Scott, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are racists, too?

I would argue that forcing Black students to attend failing urban schools epitomizes the continuing legacy of soft bigotry and racist inclinations that defines the Democrat Party. Rather than offering charter schools or vouchers, Black students are shackled to the authoritarian dictates of public schools and the irrational whims of the teacher's unions. If Black lives mattered to Democrats, wouldn't Black parents have the right to choose where their children attend school?

Perhaps the most pervasive example of Democrats' affinity for racism is abortion. Since 1973, sixty-three million babies have been aborted, and a third of them were Black. Following in the footsteps of the devout racist Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, abortion has become the holy grail of the Democrat Party.

These so-called women's health clinics masquerade as monuments celebrating women's rights. When in truth, they are nothing more than death camps with an insatiable appetite for killing the most innocent among us. If Black lives mattered, wouldn't Democrats choose life… over abortion?

One final thought: If Democrat politicians desire to pay reparations to the descendants of slavery, then send the bills to the rightful heirs of this debt, care of "JT" and his racist pals at the DNC.

Dave Maynard