What is a soldering iron?

Sometimes, conversations in Skypeland allow one to get a bit of insight into events in the real world. Today I went to a Sears store, and wanted to look at their selection of soldering irons. I found that of the six African American Sears employees that I talked to, not one knew what a soldering iron was. One guessed it was a type of golf club. A couple thought it was something to be used on a pair of pants to make a nice crease. When I tried to explain what a soldering iron was, these African Americans became arrogant and angry and haughty, dismissing my question as just an irrelevant request from a "damn fool cracker".

I also notice that when I go in a store, almost invariably there is a black family, many with immense backsides, blocking the door or standing in the middle of an aisle. They do not let anyone else pass, and are completely oblivious. No one dares say anything to them of course. Sometimes a black woman will try to butt in front of me in a checkout line. I make it a rule ot always let them get in front of me. I am not just trying to be gallant, but I do not want any trouble. Many times they are a bit annoyed with me for letting them get in front, because they were really more interested in having a fight than anything else, and I will not let them by just giving in and making a grand gesture. Often they are embarassed.

I have observed a range of things in recent days, both in Skypeland and in real life, that give me pause about the current state of African American culture. For example Washington DC, which is a fairly large city with a huge African American majority, has an average adult reading level of about grade 3 (and in DC, 19% of the population with postgraduate education like doctors, lawyers, masters degree holders and so on, which raises the average). And as bad as this is, what I find more shocking is the reaction of the local populace to this news; just plain indifference. They seem to think that going to school and learning to read is something "white" to do, and therefore something that can be safely ignored or even mocked.

Washington DC also has a huge number of adult males in prison, and a large number of single mothers, and a very low high school graduation rate. Recently, the mostly black DC city council placed a 5 cent tax on white plastic grocery bags to fund efforts to clean up the rivers in the area, which are clogged with grocery bags. What was the reaction of the mostly back populace to this tax placed on them by the mostly black city council? Of course, they overwhelming claimed that this tax was the "white man's fault" and clear evidence of "racism".

Recently there was a huge outcry among African Americans in Washington DC about claims that a commuter railyard was built over an African American graveyard. After days of outrage, it surfaced that after the US Civil War, some black squatters had settled in an area in Virginia, where they lived for about 100 years. About 1960, the county bought this land and placed a park there. Later, a railyard was built on part of the parkland. Now, almost 50 years later, some blacks claimed that their relatives were buried under the railyard. However, no graves have been found yet, if any exist. No records of any graveyard have been found or even exist. All that happened was a few elderly black people decided to scream loudly and longly about how unfair it was for the white man to buy the land 50 years ago, proving that whites are racists. Ooookay.

When I first moved to the Washington DC area, I was shocked to hear stories in the news about children, aged 8 and 9 years old, being caught having sex regularly in the school cloakrooms by the teachers. And this did not seem to upset anyone.

When I spoke to my African American neighbors in Washington DC about other places, like Japan, Canada, China, Norway and India, they all had one comment to make; they all stated that of course the main problem in all these other places is that the "ter'ble whi' crackaz be bad mofo to dem dere niggers, da 'proud black mens' livin dere". When I told these African Americans that there are very few black people and only a few white people living in places like Japan and China, these African Americans were shocked, and even stunned. These African Americans thought that for sure I was lying to them. Most of these African Americans seem to think that the world is mostly black, and that a tiny minority of white people dominate this massive black majority worldwide, in every country on earth.

I also notice that black people constantly use the word "nigger" among themselves, even on radio and television broadcasts, but if a white person should happen to use the word, even one time, there are given fines of millions of dollars by the FCC. Of course, black people try to claim that they do not use the word "nigger" but instead they use the word "niggah", but this is just sort of a nonsense argument, associated with their inability to pronounce the word "nigger". They are so sensitive about this word, that local government employees in Washington DC that used the words "niggardly" and "denigrate" in reports caused massive public protests. There were demands that the staffers that had used these words be immediately thrown in prison.

I came across another surprising story a few weeks ago. An African American MD/PhD who works at the National Institutes of Health discovered a treatment for a disease that mainly works on black people and not on white people. Black people who take this medication have a 40% greater survival rate than those who do not take the medication, but white people do not get such a benefit. However, instead of celebrating this discovery. the black community was outraged and attacked the black doctor. He was called an Uncle Tom and a racist and all manner of other ugly slurs. Black people who were interviewed demanded to be treated identically to whites, even if it meant they were certain to die and had much shorter lives. Wow.

We also get African American visitors in Skypeland, and discussions in Skypeland are an interesting way to probe African American culture and to get insights into it. Recently, J, one of our frequent African American visitors to Skypeland, surprised many of us when he told us some of his views. J was incredibly surprised that the Caucasians in the room did not like or particulary respect African American leaders and activists like Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Al Sharpton. We explained that as Caucasians, we were not comfortable with these black leaders who preached and lectured for hours and hours about how evil we are and how we should all be summarily executed. Also, J had never heard that the Tawana Brawley case was a hoax, and that Brawley had smeared herself with feces, to try to make up some excuse for why she had partied a bit too hard and disappeared for a few days.

We said that blacks like Ward Connerly and Jessie Peterson and Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell and Bill Cosby and Alan Keyes and many others were viewed more favorably by many Caucasians. J was shocked to hear this.

J seemed to have no idea that there were black leaders who were less offensive to whites, and that black leaders who made statements and threats against whites made Caucasians unhappy. J did not seem to understand that some black leaders outlined programs that were likely to result in black success, and others seemed to promote programs that would ensure black failure, but enrich themselves.

If the American black community does not wake up and examine their attitudes critically, I predict nothing but a long drawn out period of misery and hardship.