If you ever get a chance, please take a few hours from your day to hang with an African-American senior citizen from any state that was once a member of the Confederacy. Listen to their stories and try to feel their perspective on the world they come from and the world they are in now. Question them about their participation in the events that gave us the right to attend any public school, apply for any job, eat at any restaurant, or use any bathroom we want to. Glean from their experiences of the black family and neighborhood they were raised in. And after that time, when you fill your head with all of that nostalgia, you may realize that our fore fathers and mothers got what they wanted, and much, much more.
And thanks to the mythical principle of integration another African-American institution is rapidly evaporating into thin air--the CIAA. This may be hard to tell because of the tournament, but even the $40 million that it brings to Charlotte isn't enough to go around. St. Paul's College is about done playing all sports; some schools are leaving, coming back, and preparing to leave again, and a couple of white schools are joining. Along with that, another integration-related casualty is being felt in the National Basketball Association; where it looks like after the retirement of Virginia Union alum Ben Wallace, there will be no CIAA player in the Association. This is the first time this happened since 1950; since the breaking of the color barrier.
On the surface this may not seem that serious. But then when you look at no NBA contract dollars going back to Alma maters that are already in financial stress, no next-level athletes for ESPN to come see (meaning no school or conference contracts that equals more cash), and virtually no arena ticket sales, we can see the direct financial impact this has. Frankly, where do you think schools like Duke, Stanford, and Virginia Tech get a sizable chunk of their available scholarship funds? It ain't 'cause people are coming to see the Woo-Woos.
How is the Civil Rights Movement the blame? Well...since the great integration, black athletes aren't required to go to a North Carolina Central (where there aren't any scouts) and can now go to a North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where there are all the scouts). And you can tell the black kid from North Durham to keep it real and stay black all you want to...them white folks are paying and that kids' family needs to leave North Durham. And so integration has allowed for the the all-American individualism to seep into a once tight black community. Likewise fallen are black family values, education principles, self-respect, and the ethics that got sifted due to integrating ideals from other cultures.
When God instructed the Israelites to not marry foreign wives (Deuteronomy 7:3), it wasn't because He was hating on the other cultures. He knew these cultures had no regard for Him or His law and they were strong enough to influence the Israelites to have no regard for Him and His law as well. Fast forward to 2012. To name just two, the property ownership and the two-parent household have both experience tremendous downslide since the signing of the Civil Rights bill. And we know all of the other stats concerning the state of the African-American. Coincidence? Not at all. And I'm not implying that 'separate but equal' is the way to go, but clearly when you integrate with another that doesn't embody what you stand for...you will lose something of value.
I believe the demise of the CIAA is a small example of the values that established us as a mighty, God-fearing people have been sacrificed for a false American dream since the 1960s.
Peace
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