There’s a large graffiti scrawled on a plywood fence down by Jack London Square that says: “We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black community.”
This Black Panther-inspired slogan, which contains so many inaccuracies and inconsistencies, is typical of the proto-communist gibberish uttered by so many progressive racists. Let’s break it down.
Who is the “We” in “We want an end”? The implication is that “We” refers to “We the people,” as if it’s some kind of big national movement. But it’s not. These leftists have been marginalized in America to the point where the only places they have a voice are ultra-leftwing cities like Oakland—and even here, they’re losing elections. Most people don’t care a bit about them. They’re on the trash heap of history. Ask Pamela Price.
“The robbery.” Now, don’t get me wrong: It’s true that the billionaire class so favored by Donald Trump is ripping us off. The recent scourge of inflation represents the most massive transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the top 1% in our nation’s history. I’m stunned that regular people, Democrats and Republicans alike, have not united in fury in protest of this foul, brutal assault on us.
And when the graffitists mention “the capitalists” and the “black community,” they seem not to comprehend the fact that capitalism exists in all humans across America, Black, White, Brown, Yellow, whatever. “Capitalism” simply means selling something for more than you acquired, or made, it for. Every Black business in Oakland is capitalist. When a store has a sign that says “Black-owned,” it’s engaging in capitalistic behavior. The implication of the graffiti people is that when White businesses charge for their goods or services, it’s “robbing” Black people; but when Black businesses similarly charge for their goods and services, they’re serving “the community.” Sorry, you can’t have it both ways. Criticize capitalism if you want, but don’t make it a racial thing.
But the kind of people who put up this graffiti racialize everything. It’s how to achieve power in Oakland and hang on to it. I’m tired of it, as I think most people are. The wokes find racism under every bed, behind every tree, inside every White person’s mind. They’re the leftwing equivalent of McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts of the 1940s and early 1950s. Woke accusations are strictly ad hominem. Hurling angry allegations against your political opponents isn’t a sign of intelligence, but a sign of weakness and desperation. It’s what Donald Trump does.
The U.S. is going to remain a capitalist society, even as the socialist and communist countries become more and more capitalistic. All we can do is modulate some of capitalism’s rougher edges. But you can’t eliminate capitalism altogether (and we shouldn’t), and you can’t end “racism” by reverse racism. The Black Panthers really screwed up on that one, and today’s progressives continue the same self-destructive behavior. They think they’re making a revolution, when all they’really doing is destroying cities like Oakland and making people hate them.
Steve Heimoff