Miss USA—-Some thoughts “Privilige vs Right” in historical perspective

Miss USA’s comments about health care in America being a privilige and not a right is a symptom of other problems in Black parenting and values in Black America. Blacks are no longer teaching history and values to their children. Their children are being taught as if  society is equal and slavery never existed. Their history is forgotten.

A white senator told a story on Rachel Maddow about his going back home and trying to explain the ACA. He says one white constituent told him that he did not think people deserved insurance if they could not afford to pay for it. Now Miss America reportedly stated that insurance is a privilige and not a right for all in America. Some criticized Jimmy Kimmel when  he stated that no child should have to die because they do not have insurance. My child also had open heart surgery. I marvel that we were able to have insurance from his dad at the time because he worked for Ford Motor Company who had excellent health insurance for their employees. We were immediately moved from the county hospital where we were being treated as indigent to Children’s hospital. The quality of care was superior.  I was able to have a private cardiologist and pediatrician. I was blessed. I wonder today if my son would be alive if his father had not had insurance at the time and had not put my son on his insurance plan. I should not have had to think about those type of issues. All children should have insurance. No child should be denied care in America or receive less care because he does not have insurance. More importantly than that, no Black person should have the perspective that insurance is a privilege in light of the historical past of the Black man and what has happened to the middle class in America. This reminded me of the old “the Black man should pull himself up by his boot straps” conversation. That conversation forgot the stigma of the Black skin, slavery and systemic racism in America. It said, “pull yourself up but I will be standing on your foot to make sure that you do not rise.’ We have had a Black President and we have affluent Blacks in this country. We have Oprah Winfrey and others. Some say that we had a “white backlash with this election of a new fellow. My issue is that this type of comment should never come from the lips of a Black man in America who knows the history of the Black man and his struggles. Some people feel that our youths are being killed because Blacks are no longer teaching Black values. In my day, we were taught survival skills. We did not forget who we were at any time. This could determine whether we lived or died in the south. Blacks did not have the protection of the law. They survived because of the skills taught them as slaves. Now Blacks are more affluent. They no longer teach those skills. It seems to me that we are losing something. We were taught to stick together. We needed  to protect each other. We did not steal, assault or kill one another. We were brothers. It was us against them. Now, we comingle. There is interracial marriage and biracials. The lines are blurred. We think society has changed. We have a Civil Rights Act and we think this is enough. Racial inequality and injustice should not be talked about. We went to sleep and woke up and found that things are returning to the old days of Jim Crow. Groups and individuals are talking about returning to separate but equal days. Blacks are even saying this is not so bad. During the last election, I tried to talk to Blacks and Latinos about the necessity of maintaining a centrist on the Supreme Court and Civil Rights. I was told that “I do not care about those things.”  Our Black children are not being taught about our history and they do not care about what happened in the past. They do not see the consequences of the lack of equal rights for generations on the masses of Blacks who have no education or jobs. Their parents were successful and they are successful and this is all that matters. My generation said: “What you do to the least of us, you had done to me.” Fredrick Douglas used to say, “If they come for me today, they will come for you tommorrow.” We are all in this together. We are a family and a brotherhood. I am undecided about the LBTGQ Movement. However, I will embrace them and fight for their rights because they are my sisters and brothers. They are part of the family of humanity. We cannot treat them as if they were anything less. They are us.

Healthcare in America should be a right for any American. No child or person should die in America because they do not have healthcare. Americans are a part of a family. What happens to one member of the family has an effect on every member of that American family. Blacks with our history of inequality and injustice should not espouse any other position. There were Blacks during the struggle for Civil Rights who argued that Affirmative Action was not needed because allegedly racism did not exist. Blacks should pull themselved up by their bootstraps. We should ignore the past inequality in education and opportunities and just move forward as equals. The problem with that thinking, theory or position this was that this was not the view of society then or now. Power is never given up voluntarily once it is held. It took more than a Civil Rights Act to make things equal in society. There are those who still question the status of equality even now. Someone may pull Miss USA’s coattail about health care. I will look at it as the failure of Black parenting. Her parents failed to teach her about her history and give her values which included compassion for others. In that respect we all have failed our children if they lack compassion for others who might be less fortunate. We use to teach the importance of sharing to our children. Now we do not pretend. We say “to each his own.’  The failure of Miss USA is a failure of her parents to teach their child about her history as a Black woman.  Her parents also failed to teach her how to be a citizen of the world by having compassion for others less fortunate. We are all failing in this regard. Saying all of that, “God loves her.  She is too precious to lose. All human beings are too precious to lose because of lack of healthcare in America.